Rhiwlas

Llangurig, at the eastern end of the A44 across the Cambrians, sits on the banks of the Wye as it leaves the higher ground of the Cambrians and turns south towards Rhayader and Builth Wells.  At this point the river is among slightly lower hills but is nevertheless the proposed location for two new wind farms by Bute Energy (also the proposers of Esgair Galed and Banc Du).

At Rhiwlas, on Foel Gurig ridge south east of the village (shown above), Bute propose to build a further 12 200m (650ft) high turbine in addition to the 67 turbines of the same size which would be built on the north side at Banc Du. These will  tower over the river, which itself is at a height above sea level of 220m so that Foel Gurig appears only around 200m above ‘ground level’.  The Wye Valley Walk, as well as the ancient church of St Curig, whose medieval tower is no more than 33m (100ft) high even including its late 19th century spire, the NCN8 and the Prince Llewelyn Ride will all become ‘turbine tours’.

We’ve put in a strong objection to this proposal, consisting of:

• our own response, including an excellent critique of the site’s suitability for wind power from local meteorologist Dr Jeremy Price;
• our Landscape Consultant’s report critiquing the landscape assessment done by Bute Energy; and
• three tables setting out her conclusions in a clear form, here,  here and here.

The sharp-eyed will notice that in fact our position is that the Inspector simply isn’t in any position to make a decision yet: there is no grid connection and since there is so much still to do before GreenGen can get started it (if ever) the Inspector cannot assess the environmental impact that connection would have.  Further, our Landscape Consultant concludes that Bute’s landscape assessment simply isn’t done properly: they have used inappropriate guidelines and failed to follow the methodology they said they were going to use.  So there is still an information gap before any final decision should be made.

Watch this space.