November 9, 2011
Wales

Wind turbine plan submitted to new independent body

Carmarthen Journal, www.thisissouthwales.co.uk 9 November 2011

Plans to build 28 wind turbines in the Brechfa Forest have been submitted to the new independent body for dealing with major energy projects.

RWE Npower Renewables has officially lodged all its paperwork with the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) for its project called Brechfa Forest West.

It wants to build the turbines on land to the east of Alltwalis.

Over the next month, the application will now need to be validated by the IPC.

After it has been validated, people can then have their say by registering their representations with the IPC.

It is expected that the IPC will then make a decision on the plans sometime next year.

Bethan Thomas, project manager at RWE Npower Renewables said: “We are pleased to have reached this stage of the planning process. We found the consultation programme was extremely useful and thank everyone for their input.

“We still have a significant way to go. We are still at an early stage in the IPC process and have a long way to go before we receive a decision – the IPC must now consider all of our application documents before deciding whether to validate our application.

“It is really important for local people to be aware that it will only be possible to submit their formal views on the proposal to the IPC once the application has been validated.

“RWE NRL will publicise the validated application widely, with newspaper notices, newsletters posted to local residents and by writing to those who provided feedback during consultation. This publicity will explain what to do next and will give people plenty of time to register with the IPC.”

There are two other major wind farm applications planned for north east Carmarthenshire. RWE Npower Renewables also wants to build 12 turbines north of Abergorlech, called Brechfa Forest East. A separate company called Renewable Energy Systems wants to build 21 turbines on Mynydd Llanllwni. The project is called Bryn Llewelyn.

As both these applications are too small for the IPC, they will be decided by Carmarthenshire Council instead through the normal planning process.

The plans for Brechfa Forest West mark a milestone for the wind industry as it is the first onshore wind farm application submitted to the IPC.

The IPC was established by the UK Government on October 1, 2009, under the Planning Act 2008 to assess and determine planning applications for large scale nationally significant infrastructure projects.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/11/09/wind-turbine-plan-submitted-to-new-independent-body/