Five decisions on major new renewable energy projects have been approved by the Economy, Energy and Planning Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Evans since her appointment in September, contributing over 280 MW of renewable energy for Wales – the equivalent to power more than 180,000 Welsh homes.
Speaking to representatives from across the renewable energy sector at a packed Future Energy Wales conference at ICC Wales, the Cabinet Secretary outlined plans to:
- Allow Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) to take decisions on renewable energy projects up to 50MW, reducing the end-to-end decision time by at least 12 weeks.
- Improve the capacity and resilience of planning services by starting to address the shortage of planners at both local and national levels.
- Enhance Government planning resource to ensure that Developments of National Significance (DNS) applications can be considered quicker.
In addition to the major renewable energy projects given the green light by Welsh Government over recent weeks, inspector’s reports have been received by Ministers for five more applications which are under active consideration and a further 15 applications at various stages of acceptance and examination.
New proposals will allow infrastructure planning decisions of national significance to be taken more quickly.
For further information please select the following link: Welsh Government takes action to accelerate infrastructure planning decisions | GOV.WALES