Practical Planning for Renewable Energy
Stephen Stoney – Wardell Armstrong LLP
22 February 2011
Planning Experience
• Planning permissions – Wind, Solar (farms / installations), AD,
Geothermal and W>E.
• Policy creation – LDF, SPD, evidence base etc.
• Clients – LA’s, Generators, Investors, WA’s, NIMBY’s and
ruthless developers.
• Public Inquiries, Council presentations, Public exhibitions &
meetings, PPA’s, punch-ups.
• Professional, facilitator, fixer, inventor, teacher, head-banger.
Planning Policy
• National – so what?
• Regional – in a ‘Pickles’!
• Local – now there’s the real story...
• They who dare... The world v The NIMBY.
Practical Planning?
• The common principles
• Novel, contentious, unproven
• Let somebody else decide
• Will the members understand?
• Does the Government support renewables?
• What about Localism?
Practical Planning!
• Understanding urgency
• Regulatory hurdles
• Reversibility
• Cleverness – proximity, cumulative impact, ecology,
landscape & visual
• Building relationships
Let’s go for it!
• The Planning Performance Agreement
• Workshops
• Openness
• Local knowledge and respect
• Clever reasoning
• Clear planning
Delivering
• In the right place
• Proper relationships
• Exemplars – the good guys
• Not as easy as you think
• Knowing the trade
• Professional
Stimulating topics
• Project viability
• The planning envelope
• The planning balance
• The so-called experts?
• Solar – burn out?
• The future?
smstoney@wardell-armstrong.com
www.wardell-armstrong.com