Developer seeks feedback on community benefits package for controversial offshore wind farm
The company hoping to develop a huge windfarm off the Welsh coast is inviting feedback from local residents to help design a community benefits package for the project.
The Awel y Mor offshore wind farm is in the early stages of development and will be located around 10.5 km off the Great Orme if the plans get the go-ahead.
The wind farm has already been designated as a nationally significant infrastructure project but planning officers in Conwy advised councillors to oppose the plans at a pre-planning hearing last October after RWE Renewables put forward two options for the development:
Option A for 48 ‘large’ wind turbine generators, with a rotor diameter of up to 300m and a blade height of up to 332m above Mean High Water Springs.
Option B for up to 91 ‘small’ wind turbine generators, with a rotor diameter of up to 220m and a blade height of up to 252m above Mean High Water Springs.
The advice urging councillors to oppose the project highlighted damage to the visual landscape, sea scape and harm to tourism and concerns were also raised about the impact on conservation areas such as Llandudno, which relies on its Victorian heritage and fears of noise pollution created by the wind farm’s construction.
Deep roots
Announcing the consultation, which runs until 4 April, Tamsyn Rowe, Awel y Mor project manager, said: “RWE has deep roots here in north Wales: we have invested in the region significantly in recent years, both in terms of our workforce in Mostyn, but also with developments like Gwynt y Môr and Clocaenog, and their respective community benefits packages.
“We know from experience in establishing this element of a project requires careful preparation informed by equally careful listening.
“This consultation offers us the opportunity to find new ways of supporting local communities compared with other similar schemes in north Wales, as the project itself continues its own journey.”
RWE is hoping the project, which will stretch between Colwyn Bay and Llanfairfechan, will be operational by 2030.
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Cheap energy for locals would be the most desirable benefit, but this does not seem to be on the table for anywhere that has to live with these monsterous turbines. So what is the point of them? Faceless multicorporations and shareholders are the only beneficiaries, as the exploitation of our land continues into the 21st century.
Wales exports a third of the power we produce. After independence we’ll get paid for it.