Plans for wind farm changed following consultation

Plans for RWE’s proposed Gaerwen wind farm have been changed following a three-week consultation which was conducted last December.

The total number of turbines on the site south-west of Corwen and north-east of Bala, straddling the counties of Denbighshire and Gwynedd, have been reduced from 13 to nine.

The developer also plans to increase the maximum turbine height to 200m on two turbines, with the tip height of the remaining seven to be up to 180m.

The changes follow extensive surveys on the site, covering ecology, ornithology, hydrology, noise and visual impacts, as well as weather measurements and a three-week informal consultation in early December 2022.

Arfon Edwards, project manager leading on the development, said: “Following several years of work by the team, we have now arrived at what we believe to be an optimal proposal for the Gaerwen wind farm taking into consideration environmental impacts as well comments received from statutory consultees and local stakeholders.

“The reduction in turbine number means we have looked to increase the energy generating capacity through an increase in tip height, with our assessments showing this is possible on two out of nine.

“The project’s planned maximum capacity will now be around 59.4 MW. We intend to take our updated plans on to a further round of formal pre-application consultation later this year, before we submit plans to the Welsh Ministers for consideration.”

RWE had also considered solar energy generation on the site. However, following further assessments, the site is not viewed as suitable for this purpose.

The planned wind farm would contribute to both Welsh and UK Government targets towards net zero.

More information about the project is available at www.rwe.com/gaerwen