AN action group created in the face of controversial plans to build a 60-mile network of pylons through Powys was officially launched at the weekend.
‘RE-think: Don’t Break the Heart of Wales’ opened for business with a stand at the Smallholding and Countryside Festival at the Royal Welsh Showground in Llanelwedd on Saturday, May 20.
The not-for-profit group was set up in response to plans by Bute Energy Ltd to build up to 20 renewable energy parks across Wales, along with associated infrastructure.
Its proposed flagship project, the Nant Mithil Energy Park in the Radnor Forest, would include 36 turbines, each 220 metres tall, plus a new electricity substation linked via an overhead power line to the grid in Carmarthenshire 60 miles away. Solar arrays and battery storage facilities may also feature in the plans.
“It’s taken a supreme effort by the whole team to get to where we are so quickly, but we had to act fast,” said chair of RE-think, Jenny Chryss.
“Nant Mithil is just one planned energy park; if it gets the go-ahead there will be many more to follow.
“These developments and the associated pylons and other infrastructure would destroy landscapes and livelihoods, along with the environment and the ecology that surrounds them.
“Tourists who come for the beauty of the area would no longer be drawn here if it was covered in turbines and pylons. People are frantic with worry; it’s just not needed and it has to be stopped.”
The new organisation aims to promote offshore, renewable energy projects and community schemes instead of large-scale onshore developments.
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RE-think’s members and supporters believe that developments such as Nant Mithil are unnecessary because floating offshore wind projects being planned in the Celtic Sea will provide all the power that Wales needs to meet its renewable energy targets, as well as exporting to England and elsewhere.
The group also supports small renewable energy projects built near to the communities who use them.
As part of an initial consultation process, Green Gen Cymru held a series of public exhibitions between March 6 to April 28, at locations along the proposed route, including in Powys at Builth Wells and Penybont, as well as in Llandeilo and Llandovery – with hundreds of local residents attending the Powys events to learn more about the proposals.
There were also more ad hoc localised meetings, held in Hundred House and Llanwrtyd Wells.
Green Gen Cymru has confirmed it will be publishing a report summarising the feedback received in this round of consultation and how this has influenced their proposals.
They say they will then carry out a detailed environmental impact assessment and hold further public consultation, so that residents can provide their views on the detailed route alignment.
For more information on RE-think: Don’t Break the Heart of Wales, visit their Facebook page, or for more information, email them at rethinkwales@gmail.com.
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