| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Dafis: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Evans: No, I am coming to the end.
Wind turbines are relatively inefficient, highly visible and extremely ugly. They scar the natural beauty of the countryside; they are a blot on the landscape. Their continuous noise--audible and subsonic--is extremely monotonous and unpleasant, and might cause health and psychological problems. Bird habitats are destroyed, and many birds are killed. Tourists dislike them, and residents suffer through lower property values. Infrastructure still has to be erected in the countryside first to direct and then to harness the energy produced. If it were not for the subsidy, we would not be buying their power.
What is in favour of windmills? There is the mythology that, somehow, there is no downside to the sticking of a few harmless windmills out of the way in remoteish areas where they will produce bounteous amounts of energy at no cost to anyone. I am afraid that that is tosh.
The Minister for Small Business, Industry and Energy (Mr. Richard Page):
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) for giving us the opportunity to debate wind power. I also thank him and all hon. Members who are present for not falling into the obvious trap of saying how appropriate it is that politicians are discussing wind.
My hon. Friend's speech and the interventions in this very short debate show the interest in the subject. My hon. Friend will have noticed that there is not a completely unanimous view on wind power. I should like a much longer debate in future, because the matter is extremely important and valuable to our country and our economy.
My hon. Friend raised the specifics of wind power. It is a major part of the renewable energy scene. In supporting renewable energy, the Government are committed to the principle of sustainable development, and make it the touchstone of their policies. If my hon. Friend has some idea that the Government will walk away from the idea, he is doomed to disappointment.
Government policy is to stimulate the development of new and renewable energy sources, including wind energy, whenever there is the prospect of it being economically attractive and environmentally acceptable, to contribute to the diversity, security and sustainability of energy supplies. My hon. Friend rightly referred--if he did not mention it, I certainly would--to the reduction in the emission of pollutants.
In doing that, the Government have to take account of what influences business competitiveness. We are working towards 1,500 MW of declared net capacity of the new electricity generating capacity from renewable sources by 2000. That broadly sets out the Government's objectives. The principal instrument for achieving that 1,500 MW by 2000 is the making of orders under the non-fossil fuel obligation--with parallel arrangements, as everybody knows, in Scotland and Northern Ireland--that goes under the name of NFFO. That makes it sound like some sort of toffee bar, but I think that everybody knows what it stands for. It is a considerable success, of which the Government can be rightly proud.
Already, more than 330 MW of declared net capacity is operational, of which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley has said, about 66 MW comes from wind. There are 37 wind projects, including 28 wind farms, operating in the United Kingdom. I am very pleased with the progress made in that direction. It shows that the Government have been right to give some support to the wind industry to enable it to gain a footing.
To justify that confident support, the industry has had an opportunity to show its skill and enterprise. The Government announced a fourth renewable order in England and Wales in November 1995 for another400 MW, which will help us towards the target of 1,500 MW. There are also proposals under SRO-2 for an expected 70 to 80 MW of new capacity in Scotland, and for 45 MW of new capacity in Northern Ireland under the NI-NFFO 2 order. These are aims and the objectives of the NFFO programme.
I have been most encouraged by the response to the NFFO orders, which expresses the enthusiasm and commitment to an emerging industry. The industry is not just about providing energy for this country from renewable sources, as there are other areas of activity that
can help this country. I wish to talk in a moment about the export and manufacturing capacity created in this country through the NFFO orders.
My hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley calculated that the city of Birmingham would need to be covered with wind farms if we were to reach the 10 per cent. energy level. I must assure him that the Government have no intention of turning the city of Birmingham into a wind farm--the wind levels there are not quite sufficient. Nevertheless, we must remember that, if we were to move towards that 10 per cent. level, we would reduce the pollutants coming into this country from carbon sources by 8 million tonnes of carbon. That is an immense amount of pollutant, and it cannot just be lightly tossed to one side. The 10 per cent. figure is the maximum practical response that can be achieved, but would require, I understand, some 1 per cent. of the UK's land area to bring that about.
The export potential of wind energy is considerable. It is estimated that about 50,000 wind turbines, representing 22,000 MW of electricity generating capacity, can be built in the next 10 years, and that the business is worth£11 billion. In Britain, the NFFO programme has created success stories. The packed Gallery up there ensures that such success stories receive no publicity in the press.
For example, a company called Airlaminates is selling wind turbine blades around the world, and its orders in 1995 have exceeded £2.3 million. Coupe Foundry Ltd. in Preston has won some £2 million of orders to supply the major components of a German wind turbine. McNulty Offshore in South Shields recently won an order to supply 30 towers, with a value of more than £2 million, for a wind farm in Scotland. Aerpack Ltd. is planning to go ahead with a factory in Scotland to manufacture complete wind turbine blades. I wonder whether the workers in those factories would want wind energy to be tossed to one side, following the rather draconian measures advocated in some quarters.
Progress ultimately depends on developers' abilities to find sufficient sites that are acceptable in planning terms, particularly from the point of view of noise and visual impact. I must emphasise that the holding of a NFFO contract does not confer any special presumption in favour of gaining planning consent.
Mr. Dafis:
Will the Minister give way?
Mr. Page:
With respect, I want to put on record the planning process, and I literally have only a few minutes to do so. Today's debate is not long enough to do the subject sufficient justice.
In view of the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley, I thought that it would be helpful to set out some of the planning arrangements in detail. The Government recognise that renewable energy is different from fossil and nuclear forms of generation, in that they are decentralised and small scale. Hence they differ in land use and other material planning considerations.
In considering this, the Government issued specific planning guidance on renewable energies, PPG 22, in February 1993. PPG 22 reiterates the fundamental principles of planning, and deals with particular issues raised by renewables. It states that planning decisions
have to reconcile the interests of development with the importance of conserving the environment--the issue at the heart of sustainable development. Specifically in relation to energy, it states that the Government's general aim is to ensure that society's needs for energy are met in a way that is compatible with the need to protect the environment, both global and local.
PPG 22 says that planning authorities must weigh carefully the Government's policies for developing renewable energy sources with those for protecting the environment, and draws particular attention to those relating to the countryside, PPG 7, and the coast,PPG 20. PPG 22 states that planning applications should be determined in accordance with the structure plans of the county council and the local plans of the district councils. Those plans are required to include policies for conserving wildlife and the natural beauty and amenity of the land. PPG 22 also requires that they now take account of the Government's policy on renewable energy.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |