Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Shocking new findings about threats to Wales’ peatlands

01 Jul 2025 5 minute read
Restored peatlands at Cors Goch Trawsfynydd. Photo NRW

Martin Shipton

CPRW, the Welsh countryside charity, has revealed shocking new findings about the threat to Wales’ peatland landscapes.

According to the charity, the approval of wind farm developments on peatland threatens Welsh Government climate and biodiversity targets.

CPRW Trustee Dr Jonathan Dean said it was evident that severe ecological damage has already occurred at existing wind farm sites.

‘Destroyed’

He said: “To quote directly from internal government briefing documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation, ‘at Pen y Cymoedd [between Neath and Aberdare], the excavated peat had been destroyed and degraded; stone was poured into trackways until it settled, interrupting the flow of water and degrading the habitat either side of it; borrow pits were left unrestored.

“Meanwhile at Clocaenog in Denbighshire, soil from a turbine base had been dumped on a peatland habitat, and other areas of peat soils had been excavated and left to oxidise, erode and degrade. Further damage to peatland habitats will occur, and further financial resource will be needed to rectify the damage.”

Dr Dean said: “The damage is set to continue. Garn Fach wind farm near Newtown was approved in October 2024 even though it was located on protected peatland. This led to the charity’s investigation. CPRW discovered the wind farm was approved by Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Evans despite the policy not to develop on peatland, according to internal government documents. The documents reveal the wind farm was approved on the basis of ‘wholly exceptional circumstances’ – contributing just 1% towards the Welsh Government’s net zero renewable energy targets. That’s a marginal gain at a potentially irreversible ecological cost.”

Conflicting briefings

CPRW says it has uncovered conflicting briefings to ministers within departments: one allowing peatlands to be destroyed by the wind farm development, the other working to restore degraded peatland. A 2025 briefing to Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies noted that if the current pipeline of wind farm projects proceeds, the damage would ‘negate years of restoration activity’.

Jonty Colchester, CPRW Chairman, warned of the precedent being set: “It is evident that no peatland is safe from renewable energy development in light of recent planning decisions,” he said. “As such, our climate and biodiversity strategies are significantly at risk. Our peatland is the most important natural carbon sink, which is being destroyed – how can the government claim to lead the way on net zero on one hand and destroy it on the other?”

CPRW has urgently urged the Welsh Government to revisit its policy approach to ensure that peat areas are excluded when developing renewable energy developments. CPRW warns millions of pounds which has been spent on peatland restoration will be wasted if the Welsh Government doesn’t act now.

Dr Dean added: “There should be no conflict between the need to conserve and restore peatlands and the development of renewable energy. The issue is developers are picking the wrong places — and the government is letting them.”

An article on the issue by Dr Dean appears in the Summer edition of Hiraeth Magazine, CPRW’s members’ publication.

Bute Energy

In 2024 Bute Energy was granted permission to build an “energy park” at Twyn Hywel near Senghenydd, Caerphilly despite concerns about the impact on peatland.

According to Bute Energy, the energy park with 14 wind turbines will produce enough electricity to power more than 80,000 homes.

But a specialist department of the Welsh Government responsible for peatland, soil and agricultural land use lodged a formal objection to Bute’s plan, saying it would contravene the Welsh Government’s peat conservation policy.

In a consultation submission to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW), the head of the unit wrote: “The proposals will have an unacceptable adverse impact on the environment and represent a net loss of the peat resource. The Department does not consider acceptable provisions for the conservation and protection of peat can be achieved, and the proposal lacks detail for the effective site restoration of mineral soils.

“The proposal has not demonstrated that the site can be reclaimed to an acceptable standard and after-use. This should have been presented in sufficient detail for … statutory consultees to form a judgement as to its feasibility. There is significant doubt as to whether satisfactory reclamation can be achieved at the site, and as such, the planning permission should be refused.”

‘Misrepresentation’

Responding to the objection, Bute Energy’s agents Savills told PEDW: “[The] applicant considers it important to highlight what appears to be a fundamental misrepresentation of the proposed development site. Much reference is made [to] ‘developing peat’, and a perceived failure of the proposed development to protect peat resources and ‘irreplaceable habitats’.

“[The] identification of the site as a peatland site is refuted.”

Citing a set of ‘Peatlands of Wales’ maps produced by the Welsh Government, Savills stated: “It is clear that the proposed development site is not within, and in fact is remote from, what could reasonably be

considered a peatland area (ie an area where any more than very small-scale, localised areas of peat are shown to be present). It is therefore incorrect to define the site, as a whole, as a ‘peatland site’.

“On the basis of the habitats present and the limited peat on site, the identification of the proposed development site as one suitable for development is entirely appropriate.”

The Welsh Government department withdrew its objection and planning permission was granted.


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

9 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Amir
Amir
17 days ago

Build solar and wind farms. Damage Wales 100, benefit to Wales 0.

hdavies15
hdavies15
17 days ago

If this is a matter that causes surprise then you have been fast asleep for 10 years or more. The mindless destruction of pristine countryside by profiteers hiding behind the dubious mask of green bigotry is only matched in duplicity by our daft government’s feeble “initiative” to restore peatlands elsewhere having nodded and winked the approval of the original acts of vandalism.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
17 days ago
Reply to  hdavies15

The Meifod Valley fought long and hard, that was a while ago…15 years?

David
David
17 days ago

Which of the political parties who will be standing in Wales next year, will say in their manifesto’s that they will protect the peat lands by not building windfarms on them?

Brychan
Brychan
17 days ago

So it’s officially been demonstrated what most people have seen with their own eyes. The Pen y Cymoedd wind farm has sone significant damage to the peat plateaux above the Rhondda and Cynon catchment. Whilst the environmental and bio-diversity impacts are noted, it’s also important to also understand the significant effect this has had on disastrous flooding events downstream. The puncture of the sponge and bulldozing of run-off channels. TAN8 needs to be binned and a more nuanced planning regime considered by the next Welsh Government. 

hdavies15
hdavies15
16 days ago
Reply to  Brychan

Well said Brychan. Will the green bigots take note ?

Jonathan Dean
Jonathan Dean
13 days ago
Reply to  Brychan

TAN8 was withdrawn in 2020 when Future Wales was enacted. It allows wind farms anywhere except national parks and AONBs

Peat is supposedly protected, but isn’t in practice

Sarah Eyles
Sarah Eyles
16 days ago

It’s pure chemistry. Peat is acid and cement is alkali. Acid and alkali are complete chemical opposites. When they meet they react to form a neutral substance, eg the peat is destroyed. If you want to preserve peat do not let cement get anywhere near it.

Jonathan Dean
Jonathan Dean
13 days ago
Reply to  Sarah Eyles

Also, don’t expose peat to oxygen

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.