English Nature's Guidelines

by Paul Gipe

Despite the title, English Nature's "Nature conservation guidelines for renewable energy projects" focuses mainly on wind energy. English Nature is a quasi-nongovernmental organization or "quango" and is responsible for National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest in England. (There are similar quangos in Wales and Scotland.) English Nature's slim report was published at the same time as BWEA's Best Practice Guidelines for which they were a participant.

English Nature's interest in wind projects results from their interest in protecting upland natural areas that are often windy. The reason for doing so is explained in a table summarizing impacts. English Nature describes wind farms as "large civil engineering projects in rural locations, often on important wildlife sites" and ranks the impact as "significant or moderate as wind farms." Cumulative impact from individual wind turbines is ranked as "insignificant". Small scale hydro, tidal, onshore wave, dry geothermal, and solar are all rated from negligible to moderate.

Like most environmental organizations English Nature spells out where British wind developers can expect to be challenged. Interestingly, English Nature also states where they will accept projects. For example, English Nature will not oppose single turbine installations, even on coastal sties, notably at harbors and ports. Further, they delineate their preferences "for coastal wind power developments on agriculturally improved land, rather than semi-natural habitats. Such sites should also preferably be set back from the coastline."

back to Archive of Articles