2. Will the Minister provide an update on pre-assessed areas for wind turbines in Wales? OQ57313

'Future Wales' identifies 10 pre-assessed areas for wind energy developments of national significance. There are currently 10 developments of national significance in progress within or partly within the pre-assessed areas. Eight are at the pre-application stage, one is at the notification stage, and one is at the report stage.

Thank you, Minister. A RenewableUK Cymru analysis report has recently highlighted that, when spatial limitations are applied, such as proximity to housing, Ministry of Defence training areas, main river corridors, and even proximity to other windfarm developments, which would be applied during any planning application process, then the actual usable land that's available for windfarm developments within these pre-assessed areas drastically decreases to only 5 per cent, reducing the capacity to generate electricity from wind to only 20 per cent of what is predicted. This is, in effect, a major shortcoming of your renewable generation strategy, and, given that the Welsh Government's target is to generate 70 per cent renewable energy by 2030, it will no doubt seriously hinder the ability of that target to be met. With this in mind, can the Minister confirm whether or not she knows of these limitations, and whether or not the pre-assessed areas will need to be re-evaluated as a result? Thank you.

Well, I set out in my initial response to you that we have 10 developments of national significance in progress, which is very good news, considering the length of time that 'Future Wales' has been in place. So, I appreciate the point you're making, but it's not borne out by the number of applications we currently have inside the system. I'd just like to also point out that the pre-assessed areas are not necessarily the only place you can build a windfarm or any other renewable in Wales; there are just slightly different planning assumptions made in those areas. So, there's nothing at all to stop anyone bringing forward a solution elsewhere in Wales, but they will of course have to go through the process.