@ Andre – Under 50 MW I’d say it can be anything from 2/3 to 5 years to go from concept to having planning permission. Then you have to discharge conditions and order the long lead items, such as grid equipment and turbines – that can mean several more years before you build.

Over 50 MW projects are decided by the government, in a process that’s not exactly fast but is faster and much fairer in its application of policy and its outcome. There’s a new version of this coming next year which the government says will deliver decisions in 9 months flat. Good news but only for very big wind farms, which over 50 MW is.

But the bulk of our potential wind energy (onshore) is in smaller projects. A 50 MW wind farm is pretty big and pretty rare –especially in England.

With regards the Good Energy, again – I thought this and Tom’s comment deserved a new post to try and clarify things… (coming shortly)

and is the planning application process for 50MW+ wind farms (at national governmental level) quicker?”.
Dale would be more knowledgeable but in my limited experience as a renewable energy campaigner the answer to the first question and the second is it varies.
Sub 50mw–npr’s lindhurst scheme in Nottinghamshire(10-12mw) has taken 6 years total~awaiting turbines~next summer2002-2008.
but Ecotricity hope to build the B&Q Turbine at Worksop before then,Ecotricity appear to be far faster at turn around than any of the majors i have seen (bicker fen wind farm,windprospect was approved 2002 and still no turbines!)

Over 50mw ,Lewis wind farm has waited 6 years in Planning for its refusal decision at the scottish executive plus feasibility studies and the average two year wait to get hold a turbine,etc,etc if it had won.
Keadby and tween bridge wind farms went to public inquiry in 2003 and only recently were approved(5 years at dti/dberr).
With local refusal rates at 33% and getting worse and nimbys getting worse turning to voilence,intimidation,arson and vandalism,met masts chopped down etc,-marshland st james etc)huge planning delays (4 yeas is becoming the norm) and M.O.D playing political games for more funding by objecting at the last minute,the planning system is massively holding the industry up and not giving the certainty to developers to invest in new plant production,resulting in the mess we have now.
And now we have the very real possibility of a tory party return (cameron etal have been totally against onshore wind) the future is not very bright at all.
As Dale say’s the only way we can change this is to actively support your local renewable energy scheme as much as possible,get active!.
hamy on the 6th may,Shell is very unlikely to invest in water turbines(wave/tidal) as they are still early prototypes and far more expensive than Wind,Dberr calc’s put them at 4-6 times more expensive than offshore wind!.
Npower renewables,wind prospect and Eon have a few small schemes but it will be many years before they are cost effective comparable to wind or Fossil fuels.
They may have a chance where it is difficult to build offshore wind (deep water~scotland) but so far the economics of large scale do not add up.
Wind farms rock!
looking forward to the Embrace weekend 14th and 15th June!.
Sorry for being so negative!.

Shell have this info on their site. Not a lot going on in the UK…

Funnily enough - if you do a google search for “Shell Renewables” and click the top result, or follow a link on their site on this page - it says ‘page not found’

… i’m just wondering, whether their business model really facilitates renewable capacity expansion in the UK … or if it’s just another way to market a so called “green business” … opinions anyone?

and is the planning application process for 50MW+ wind farms (at national governmental level) quicker?

If more people picked the ethical choice instead of just the cheapest, the ‘big boys’ would be forced to observe these consumer trends and adapt. Most of these companies don’t give a hoot about our protests, or green issues. But they DO care about profit!

We can’t always afford the most ethical choice, but in this case there’s something more important than making your own house carbon zero. It’s about contributing to the ‘green movement’!!
Pass this site on to your friends..
http://www.whichgreen.co.uk

And if Powergen ever overtakes Ecotricity for green investment (per customer), no offence Dale.. but I’m off !

The consented unbuilt turbine stock is over 5GW (http://bwea.com/ukwed/consented.asp). The build is about 500MW/annum. That means it could take 10 years to build the already consented.

My point is that the problem is the build rate rather than the consent rate. Granted ecotricity as an ethusiast has a problem here - but the majors do not.

We should not give them the excuse that its local government councillors who are stopping Eon et al from delivering wind energy.

Granted if they built at the rate we really need then 5GW wouls soon disappear and we need to get to grips with nimbyism. Its just a second order problem right now.

Re nuclear energy - It looks like Germany’s impressive wind build won’t do much more than replace retiring nuclear plant. No effect at all on fossil powered generation. Nuclear waste may be bad but I think we need to think whether CO2 waste is even worse.

Here hew fossil build is just ridiculous when we have all this unbuilt wind consents (more than twice the Kingsdown proposal).

We definitely need to be asking why the ‘big boys’ (who could make that kind of investment) aren’t even putting in the applications… and also, why the planning permission is not given to more applications, especially considering the amount of care that goes into selecting a site and making the application..