Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many applications her Department has received for licences for unconventional gas extraction since 2010; how many such applications were approved; how many applications her Department has received for onshore wind generation facilities since 2010; and how many such applications were approved.

Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDLs) grant exclusive rights to extract hydrocarbons within a particular onshore area. These rights include, but are not exclusive to, unconventional gas. A further consent is required before any extraction can take place. No PEDLs have been issued since 2008. Applications for PEDLs under the 14^th Onshore Licensing Round are currently being considered – 95 applications for 295 licence blocks have been made.

Since 2010 DECC has received 3 planning applications for onshore windfarms above 50MW and the Planning Inspectorate has received 1 further application for examination. 6 onshore wind applications above 50MW have been approved by the Secretary of State in the period. In addition, at the end of March 2015, five years after the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff scheme, 6,830 sub 5MW installations totalling 396MW had been registered on the scheme. The Renewables Obligation was introduced in 2002 to support large scale renewable electricity in the UK and since 2010 Ofgem have accredited 415 onshore wind stations totalling 4.28 GW under the scheme.