Government, Wiltshire and Swindon Energy Strategies

Many of us have felt that the government has forgotten any objectives for improving sustainable living. When we started our solar farms at Chelworth and Braydon there were good incentives for investments as with good returns through the Feed in Tariff and other purchasing agreements. The incentives have since been removed and tariffs adjusted.  Planning regulations were suddenly changed-new on shore wind projects were effectively curtailed.  It looks much more difficult to start new projects. But the government has not completely forgotten us.

We thought you might be interested in links to the updates in policies and strategies which will affect us.

The Government has a published a Green Growth Strategy. They have given £1m to develop Energy Projects to the West of England Combined Authority (Bath and Bristol). Under this umbrella the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) is developing a Swindon and Wiltshire Local Energy Strategy which you can see in this presentation. Do have a look at it, it has some interesting facts and information, and we were heartened by seeing that its first recommendation for the Energy Strategy is “Encourage renewables and support community energy”.  We can fully support that.  It’s a pity they are not consulting outside the Local Enterprise Partnership and only businesses are invited to contribute to the strategy.