MP for Newquay welcomes more green energy across Cornwall.
The government have announced a new Local Power Plan, alongside the biggest onshore wind farm in a decade to be set up by Imerys in Cornwall.
The MP for St Austell and Newquay, Noah Law, says he supports the government’s new clean energy schemes across Cornwall, but wants them to go further by investing in local businesses.
Earlier this week reports were released of a new Imerys Wind Farm to be built in Cornwall. The farm will have turbines of more than 100 metres high, and is the biggest onshore scheme for a decade. On the same day a new Local Power Plan was revealed.
The Local Power Plan promises that communities will directly benefit from energy they help produce. The Government will be providing up to £1 billion of funding, hands-on support, better business models and regulatory reform to help develop local projects at scale across the UK.
Discussing the new Wind Farm plans, Law said:
“It’s a really good sign… it’s supply and demand, and what do we have to supply more of? The cheapest energy generation currently, which is renewables…
So it is a really exciting opportunity. It's great to see the expertise being developed in Cornwall. We've got great great companies in wind and solar. We've got a great expertise in geothermal as well.”
He continued that the project would take some time to come online, so while bill payers would be expected to feel the benefit of the Wind Farm, change would not be immediate.
Responding to criticism of the project’s potential impact on the landscape, he added:
“The beauty of a wind turbine is it is a temporary thing. And if we come up with some wonderful technology in the future, that means that we can restore whatever vista we think has been destroyed. It's a much lower, much less invasive form.
But as I said… I do understand the emotive aspects for it.”
Law believed the most important announcement of the day was that of the Local Power Plan:
“it's great that big companies like Imerys can help deliver this capacity. But actually, we want local people as well, not just starting their own green power projects where possible, but also to really share in the benefits of that directly.
Not just through bills, which we've said will take a bit of time, but also as owners of community energy projects. Which is why it's so exciting that the Local Power Plan has finally been launched.
We've got to start scaling these things so that we can have homegrown power ideally with community participation.”