Does England’s renewable future sit on two small onshore wind turbines?

Two new small onshore wind turbines went operational in England last year, new data shows

One new onshore wind farm in England with just two turbines, having 1MW of combined capacity, was built last year.

That’s according to new analysis by RenewableUK, which suggests ten new onshore wind projects were installed across the UK in 2022, adding 318MW to the installed onshore capacity – these wind farms are predicted to power a further 209,000 homes.

Six of these new projects were built in Scotland, one went operational in Wales, one in England and two in Northern Ireland.

The trade association stresses that this represents less new UK onshore capacity than was built in 2021 when 370MW was added.

RenewableUK has called for planning reforms to be implemented as soon as possible to enable more projects to go ahead onshore and offshore.

RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Dan McGrail said: “We need to see substantial changes to enable consumers and local communities to benefit fully from the benefits that this popular low-cost technology offers.

“That means changing the rules which skew the planning system unfairly against onshore wind in England, putting it back on a level playing field so that it can compete fairly against other clean technologies.”

ELN has approached BEIS for comment.

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