Plans revealed for county’s first 200m wind turbines

Anthony Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

Proposals for a wind farm could see the first ever 200m high turbines in one Welsh county.

The plans are for the construction, operation, and decommissioning of up to eight wind turbines and solar panels with a battery storage facility and associated infrastructure on land north east of Porth and south of Llanwonno in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT).

And a planning officer has said these would be the first 200m-high turbines in RCT if approved.

It is a development of national significance so the decision will be made by Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) rather than the council because the installed generating capacity of the proposed development would be well in excess of 10MW (MegaWatts).

But it is a requirement of the DNS process that any relevant local planning authority, in this case the council, must submit a local impact report (LIR) to PEDW to assist the appointed inspector in the consideration of the proposals.

It would have a combined generation capacity of 61MW and the turbines would have base-to-blade tip heights of between 150m and 200m. They would be constructed on concrete pads.

The solar panels would be arranged in rows, fixed at a tilt of 15 degrees on frames, and southerly-facing.

The frames would be mounted on posts so the panels would be raised from the ground by 1m and have a maximum height of 2.8m.

The energy storage element of the proposal would include 24 40ft containers which would enable surplus energy to be stored and released when required. They would store 30 MW of energy.

Construction access for the project will be via the B4273, continuing onto Heol-YMynach, Pleasant View, and Bryn Ffynon, before routing to site from Llanwonno via Pen-y-Wal Road.

This route will be used by general construction traffic only with
abnormal loads delivered via the A4058, Rhondda Road, Graigwen Road, and Peny-Wal Road, accessing from the south.

Post-construction the wind farm would be managed remotely with occasional site visits for any maintenance.

The construction period would be approximately 24 months and the wind farm has been designed with an operational life of 50 years and at the end of this period would be decommissioned, dismantled, and removed from site.

A planning officer told the council’s planning committee on Thursday, April 16, these would be the first 200m high turbines that they’ve ever had with the highest previously being 149.5m.

Councillor Danny Grehan said almost every mountain or hill in the Rhondda has got these turbines and these ones are “so much bigger”.

Councillor Loretta Tomkinson said although the final decision is with PEDW the principle of the development would contribute to renewable energy generation and help meet national and local climate energy targets.

Councillor Wendy Lewis said she was in favour of wind turbines but the Rhondda has taken the brunt of this and every window she looks out of in her house she can see a wind turbine from.

She said it is oversaturated although she added she knows they need it.

The report says while the site is located outside of any pre-assessed areas for large-scale wind energy development Future Wales 2040 allows for such development outside of these areas providing the scheme complies with relevant planning policy.

The report says: “It is considered the proposed development will have a negative landscape and visual impact and to the outlook of the closest residents although it is accepted that to some degree this is a subjective issue.

“In all other key respects such as residential amenity, highway safety, and ecology it is considered appropriate mitigation can be implemented that would ensure there is no more than a neutral impact.

“There are some issues that need further consideration and would currently result in a negative impact but could be overcome through submission of further details via condition.”

It says Future Wales 2040 and Planning Policy Wales clearly offer strong support for the provision of renewable energy projects across Wales, as does RCT’s own local development plan (LDP), and it says it is clear from the national policy documents there is a strong presumption in favour of such projects to the point where adverse impacts have to be particularly severe for a refusal of consent to be justified.

“Given that the adverse impacts in this case which will likely be the key determining factors for the PEDW inspector are considered to be mostly related to visual impact.”