Devon gets the wind up

Planning approval boosts ‘greenest county’ bidAfter multiple knock-backs and a spot of legal wrangling (including a four-week public enquiry) Devon’s considerable wind resources will soon have something sizeable to bite into. At the beginning of October the secretary of state for business enterprise and regulatory reform (BERR) announced approval for the 66MW Fullabrook Wind Farm, a project that will triple the county’s installed renewable energy capacity.

Regen SW, renewable energy agency for the southwest, and Devon Wind Power Limited, the company set to undertake the work, are big on superlatives. Matthew Spencer, Regen SW’s chief executive, said: “This will strengthen Devon’s bid to be the greenest county in England, and will put it at the top of the league table in the seven counties of the southwest.” True enough, but what of the region as a whole? BERR’s 2006 statistics on the installed renewable energy capacity of the nine English regions show the southwest lagging in sixth position. Devon’s extra 66MW will catapult it well beyond the East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber, into fourth place. A tigerish leap, but the fact that a single development can make such a difference reflects the fact that total renewable capacity in England is still pretty paltry. – Sean Frisby

Ranking the regions:renewable energy capacity

EastSoutheastNorthwestSouthwestYorkshire and HumberEast MidlandsWest MidlandsLondonNortheastSource: www.restats.org.uk401.3 MW363.3 MW355 .4 MW217.3 MW (151.3 + 66 MW)157.5 MW152.6 MW141.6 MW115.9 MW92.2 MW