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Renewable Energy and the UK Planning System

The recent United Kingdom (UK) government White Paper on Energy (Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), 2003) maps out a future energy strategy which places a significant reliance on renewable energy resources. The enhanced importance of renewable energy is seen as one inevitable consequence of the acceptance of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’s (RCEP’s) recommendation that the UK should attempt to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 60% from current levels by 2050 (RCEP, 2000). An estimated 30–40% of electricity demand will need to be derived from renewable sources in order to achieve this objective, a target which implies a massive increase in development of renewable energy schemes. All of the usual range of technologies for exploiting these resources is discussed, including wind, wave, tidal, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass. The potential for offshore development is stressed, partly because it is seen as a way of reducing the scale of environmental impact from onshore renewables development. Even so, an increase in renewable energy development activity of the scale envisaged in the White Paper raises significant questions regarding environmental impact, public attitudes and the role of planning policy. The planning system is noted as an obstacle to the development of renewables, so the White Paper suggests streamlining and simplifying planning as a solution. Whilst the planning system may be a source of delay, or in some cases form an absolute barrier, a policy which seeks to downgrade the importance of planning in the development process may prove to be counter productive to the long-term ambitions of the renewables industry. The history of antagonism between objectors and the electricity generation and supply industry over schemes granted permission under deemed consent procedures does not set a good precedent. There is sufficient evidence of both public support and opposition to renewable energy development to view its expansion as a contentious issue in much the same way that the location of new retail or housing provision has been in recent years. Any modifications to the planning process need to take all views, constraints and impacts into account, in a similar fashion to other forms of development. Planning, nevertheless, is regarded as the key obstacle in the White Paper, so this paper seeks to examine how the planning system could adapt to both facilitate renewables developments and maintain a legitimate role as mediator in the development process.