Wind wire - Infrastructure Planning Commission

Four are onshore projects in Wales - RWE npower renewables' 107 MW Brechfa project and RES's 33-turbine, 50-100 MW Llanllwni project, both in Carmarthenshire; and Airtricity's 140 MW Nant-y-Moch and ScottishPower's 80-120 MW Dyfnant Forest, both in Ceredigion. The fifth is RWE npower renewables' 1200 MW Triton Knoll offshore wind farm in the Greater Wash. The news emerged as the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) published draft national policy statements on energy to guide planning decisions on large energy projects. The IPC is being established to make faster decisions on large projects of national importance, such as airports, large wind farms and nuclear power stations. To guide its decisions, the government is producing 12 national policy statements. The six concerned with energy cover fossil fuels, renewable energy, gas supply, power networks and nuclear, together with an overarching statement on energy. Decc has also named ten sites in England and Wales as potentially suitable for new nuclear power stations. They include a site at Kirkstanton in Cumbria, which, if developed, would require the existing 5.8 MW Haverigg wind farm to be dismantled. Decc's consultation into the new policy statements runs until February 2010, after which the amended statements receive parliamentary scrutiny.