| Two wind farms to get green light |
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| Monday, 17 September 2007 | |
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In a speech tonight to the Fabian Society John Hutton Secretary of State for Business will say it is unacceptable it can take ten years from an application for a wind farm being made to energy being delivered to the grid. He will say that, in order to make significant reductions in the UK's carbon emissions, the planning system must undergo radical reform.
"We are frustratingly close to a dramatic escalation of renewable energy in the UK but it's being held back by a snail's pace planning system."
Mr Hutton will then match words with action and announce consents for the innovative Wave Hub 'socket' on the sea bed off North Cornwall and for the 30 turbine Teesside project off the mouth of the River Tees. Once constructed, these two projects are expected to feed a further 110MW of clean power into the grid, enough to supply almost 80,000 homes and saving up to 60,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. |