What is the planning and decision-making process governing wind energy developments?
Before 2015, planning permissions for onshore wind developments with a capacity of less than 50MW were assessed by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) through the Town and Country Planning Act 1990,while larger commercial wind developments were assessed by national governments through the Planning Act 2008 and the Electricity Act 1989.
Following the elections in 2015, the new government requested that all new onshore wind farms, including those above 50MW, should be subjected to the same procedure required for small installations. This implies that local planning authorities have now the main decision making (and veto) power over large installations too.
When it comes to planning protection in place for natural landscapes and key areas of natural heritage, The National Planning Policy Framework aims to protect areas of outstanding natural beauty, sites of special scientific interest and areas of high national heritage value.
Additionally, most commercial-scale onshore wind turbine applications require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – which assess the potential visual impacts and changes to landscape and biodiversity that could result. The EIA can directly inform a decision to approve or reject a submitted application. Noise impacts are also considered, with a noise assessment completed to review potential noise compared to existing levels of background noise at a proposed site.
