Britain reached a milestone over the weekend as it surpassed 15 gigawatts of installed onshore wind capacity, enough to power 9.9 million homes.
However, an effective ban on the construction of wind turbines in England prompted calls for government action to change planning rules and encourage new investment.
Indeed, just one turbine has been built in England since early 2023, while only one more is under construction currently, industry body RenewableUK pointed out.
“We still face an English planning system which is stacked against onshore wind, treating it differently to every other energy source or infrastructure project,” policy head James Robottom said.
“Under the current rules we’re not going to see investment in new projects at anything like the scale needed to reinvigorate onshore wind in England after nine years of lost progress.”
Since 2015, government rules have determined that onshore wind projects can be blocked if just one objection is made against them.
England has ended up playing host to disproportionately less onshore wind than other UK nations as a result, with development of new farms having stalled.
Scotland accounts for 63% of the UK’s onshore wind, as per RenewableUK, with England hosting just under 20%, Northern Ireland 9% and Wales 8%.
Robottom added that RenewableUK was calling on the government to set UK-wide targets for 30GW of onshore wind capacity by 2030, including through the use of reforms.
“New planning policies could unlock green growth and bring economic benefits to communities which are currently being denied opportunities to benefit from onshore wind,” he said.