COLUMN: Crown Estate should benefit Wales

A great deal of concern has been voiced about the Bute Energy proposals to introduce 36 wind turbines, with a maximum blade height of 220m on a site between Penybont and New Radnor, near Llandegley.

Likewise the Green GEN Towy Usk proposal for a new 132kV double-circuit overhead line, supported on steel pylons, between a substation at Nant Mithil and a new substation on the existing National Grid line between Carmarthen and Pont Abraham, south of Ammanford.

In the meantime, the Crown Estate is an independent company which belongs to the monarch for the duration of their reign, though the revenue from its £16 billion property portfolio flows directly to the Treasury.

The Sovereign Grant, which pays for the King’s official duties as head of state, is currently set at 25% of the Crown Estate’s annual profits, including a 10% uplift to pay for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.

The estate’s holdings north of the border were devolved to Scotland in 2016, and its revenue now goes to the Scottish Government.

The Crown Estate owns the UK seabed out to 12 nautical miles, and an arrangement similar to Scotland would give Wales a direct say in how the profits from new floating wind farms planned off the Welsh coast would be spent.

Offshore wind and marine energy over 12 nautical miles from Welsh shores is not devolved, with the new generation of offshore wind projects tending to be more than 20 kilometres offshore and over 350MW.

The responsibility for offshore wind projects is split between the Crown Estate, which has to lease the seabed, and the UK Government for approval and grid connection.

Currently Wales produces 30 TWH (terawatt hours or one million megawatt hours) of energy while using only 14 TWH.

The industry standard for concrete needed for wind turbines is 220-370 tonnes per MW of installed wind power. Wales had, in 2020, 1,273 MW installed, meaning – on average – over 400,000 tonnes of concrete has been poured into our countryside.

Proposals for far offshore wind power projects in the Irish and Celtic Sea combined could generate at least 100 TWH of energy, on the basis of recorded average wind speeds.

If the two freeports announced for Wales at Anglesey and Milford Haven/Aberavon were used correctly, they could be the catalyst for a burgeoning industry and centres of excellence for offshore wind.

The Future Wales policy document only covers terrestrial policy, and needs to be integrated with the Wales National Marine Plan into a single updated set of targets. Without offshore wind being incorporated into Future Wales 2040, the full potential of offshore wind is not being taken into account.

Wouldn’t devolving the Crown estate as in Scotland and let Wales benefit from it not only boost Wales financially but also relieve some of the pressure for on land windfarms and pylons as in Radnorshire?