Government rejects major windfarm off Dorset coast
The Guardian reports, 11th September 2015: The government has turned down an application to build a £3.5bn windfarm off the south coast of England in another major blow to the green energy industry under the Conservatives.
The decision on the Navitus Bay project off Dorset was unveiled by Lord Bourne, the energy minister, even as 13 leading financial investors urged the chancellor to adopt a more positive stance on renewables.
Bourne ruled against the 121 turbines, each 200 metres high, being erected, arguing they would undermine the local tourism industry, which benefits from the nearby Jurassic Coast, a Unesco world heritage site.
The site for the rejected Navitus Bay offshore windfarm off the Dorset coast, showing how the turbines would have looked.
Photograph: Navitus Bay Development
“Careful consideration has been given to the application, and the planning and energy issues involved,” said a Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) spokesperson.
Bournemouth tourism management board (BTMB) said it was delighted with the decision. “We warmly welcome the government’s decision to reject Navitus Bay, which would have damaged one of the UK’s most environmentally sensitive landscapes and hit local tourism business hard,” said Des Simmons, the BTMB chairman.
But Maria McCaffery, chief executive of the wind industry lobby RenewableUK described it as a missed opportunity. She said: “It’s deeply disappointing that Navitus Bay has been refused consent. This is a missed opportunity as it means we’re failing to capitalise on the UK’s superb offshore wind resource and the economic benefits it brings.”
The red light was not unexpected and comes after furious lobbying against Navitus by Tory MPs in Dorset, local authorities and the National Trust. It will further alarm renewable energy industrialists and campaigners, given a recent government halt to subsidies for any more onshore windfarms, plus some aid to solar power and energy efficiency schemes.
It is not the first time that plans for an offshore windfarm have been declined but it is very rare. The only other example was when the then energy secretary Ed Davey shut the door on the Docking Shoalshoal A sandbank or sandbar that makes the water shallow scheme off Norfolk. That decision was blamed on the number of Sandwich tern seabirds that could have been caught in the spinning blades and killed.
Source: The Guardian, 11th September 2015. For the full text, see
www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/11/tories-reject-navitus-bay-offshore-windfarm
