Onshore Wind Farms

Lord Swire Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I am sure we will not, because onshore power, like offshore power and all other forms of renewable power, has to abide by planning guidelines and guidance and has to fit in well with all the environmental considerations that are being put forward. There will be no change in that requirement; it is just that with the speeding up of some of those processes, onshore wind, where it is requested and where it fits all those requirements, can proceed very quickly.

[Lord Swire (Con)]

My Lords, why are the Government so steadfast in their refusal to have a proper, open debate about the relative benefits, environmental and otherwise, of burying power lines as opposed to having overhead power lines? This is not an argument that is going to go away. It is about time the Government fessed up on this and stopped relying on hugely inflated figures provided by the national grid.

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I am slightly puzzled by the noble Lord’s enunciation of that question, in that renewable wind and overhead power lines go closely together, because the overhead power lines have to deliver the power that is being generated by the renewable power sources. As for the requirement that that variable output be matched by various other sources of energy when, for example, the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, that is well taken care of by the back-up that is already in the system—due, I might add, to a number of renewable sources also being non-variable.