Memorandum by Green Amps Limited
1. Green Amps Limited ("GAL")
wishes to submit this letter by way of inquiry consultation submission
into the exercise being conducted by the CLG Committee constituting
follow-up to the inquiry conducted in 2001-02 reported in HC481.
2. GAL is a small privately owned company
engaged in the deployment of mid-size wind turbines for the generation
of renewable energy. Each project comprises a pair of grid-connected
300 kW turbines deployed on farmers' land bringing together (i)
renewable energy generation (ii) SME development and (iii) agricultural
diversification in the form of rental income to the farmers. Each
project provides enough energy for approximately 600 homes and
is deployed with a minimum requirement for new grid deployment.
3. GAL currently has 14 sites in Gloucestershire
for which Planning pre-clearance has been achieved, and a pipeline
of 35 additional Gloucestershire sites that have been proposed
by their hosts.
4. These sites, in aggregate, more than
achieve, single handedly, the target for 2010 encapsulated in
the Gloucestershire Renewable Energy Action Plan adopted by each
of the District Councils of Gloucestershire.
5. GAL has developed a Geographic Information
System (the GAL "Mapping Tool") within which different
mapping layers are used to represent the interests and assets
of the different key stakeholders involved in planning pre-consultation
under PPS22 (statutory and non-statutory Consultees as referred
to by s.54 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004). It should
be noted that the backdrop for the Mapping Tool requires (in order
to make sense) the 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 OS UK-wide map tile data-set.
6. One element of the Mapping Tool is the
ability to (i) assess and avoid the paths of all UK (private and
public sector) telecommunications microwave links and (ii) assess
and mitigate the effects of interaction with civil and military
primary radars. This part of the Mapping Tool requires the OS
"Panorama Profile" Digital Terrain Map.
7. GAL has for some years advocated and
lobbied for the streamlining of the planning system to make the
task of securing planning consent for these projects easier. GAL
has since 2000 also challenged Government policy on renewables
deployment, arguing that unless the planning system was substantially
overhauled the targets for 2010 would not have been achieved.
GAL has now been vindicated in making this challenge unless substantial
mitigating action is taken.
8. The Director of Renewables at the DTI
observed in 2005 that GAL "was the furthest ahead in the
UK as a developer in seeking to streamline the planning system
in this way and that the Mapping Tool should be made available
to a wider market rather than being confined to use by GAL alone".
GAL has sought to achieve this by (i) in 2005 conducting a privately-funded
study of how the Mapping Tool could be handed over (free-of-charge)
to a public sector organisation (ii) filed a concluding report
with the DTI detailing the results of that study and (iii) engaged
with the Planning Portal to discuss how it could host a web-based
version of the Mapping Tool.
9. The Director General of the Planning
Portal and Deputy Director General Planning at the ODPM (as was)
observed that "Green Amps has been monitored for some time
in its endeavours and that support for its approach goes to the
very top of Government". Considerable support was pledged
(and extended) by the ODPM in relation to finding ways to streamline
planning assist GAL in delivering these projects.
10. Stern has now declared that lives are
at risk as a consequence of Climate Change. The officers of GAL
are such individuals. The deployment of renewable energy assets
is not simply a matter of supporting Government policy on climate
change but is also taking a mitigating stance and thus ameliorating
that risk to human life.
11. GAL has found the process of properly
licensing the OS mapping products referred to as grossly onerous.
OS raised a challenge against GAL of the most forceful nature
in April 2006 and a significant and protracted dispute between
OS and GAL has ensued.
12. This matter is now the subject of judicial
proceedings instigated by OS, adjoining HMSO, in the High Court.
Nick Brown
CEO
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