Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 21 September 2022.
I understand there are often concerns when there are large infrastructure projects. I well remember the claims made when Gwynt y Môr was being developed by people in Llandudno claiming that visitors would stay away from the tourist destination, which has clearly proven to be unfounded. So, we should note there are people who are concerned. There are also people who are very supportive of renewable energy, not least now in the energy crisis we face, where wind is the easiest to deploy and the cheapest to commission. So, we certainly shouldn't turn our face against wind.
As you rightly say, we have set out pre-assessed areas for wind energy that establishes a presumption in favour of large-scale wind development. That doesn't, however, give a blank cheque to developers to put what they like there; they have to pass a series of checks that are set out in policy 18 of 'Future Wales', which includes noise. So, there are detailed criteria listed under that where they have to pass the test. Our officials will be making sure that the proposals are subject to acute examination, but there's no getting away from the fact that we do need to see far more wind deployed quickly if we are to meet both our need for energy security, but also for carbon neutrality.