September 2024
For Britain to become a clean energy superpower and to meet UK net zero by 2050, renewable energy schemes need to be deployed at pace. As climate change presents the greatest threat to wild species, this is critically important for nature as well. Our best chance of addressing climate drivers of nature’s decline is if we uphold our part of, and make a success of, international agreements designed to halt global climate change
When it is planned well, climate infrastructure can increase healthy habitats for wild species. However, badly planned energy infrastructure can run roughshod over sensitive natural habitats or directly harm wildlife like birds and bats. An integrated approach to nature recovery and planning is needed, to allow renewable energy infrastructure development to be delivered whilst making a positive contribution to nature recovery.
Pylons, required to carry renewable energy from the North Sea to English homes, are a type of energy infrastructure in the news a lot at the moment. Plans to develop new pylon lines to transmit renewable energy from offshore wind farms are in full swing, including the East Anglia plan to build a 114-mile power line from Tilbury in Essex to Norwich. Underground cables are planned for three sections of the line, with the majority set to be overground pylons.
Regarding the development of this line, Essex Wildlife Trust is calling for a coordinated approach to planning, design, and construction of energy cables and grid infrastructure to minimise nature impacts.
This emphasis on routing is echoed by other environmental organisations. The RSPB have called for routing to be considered carefully, as well as the type of cabling proposed. It is important that routes do not impact irreplaceable habitats such as lowland fens, ancient woodlands and ancient and veteran trees. Nationally and internationally protected sites, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), should be avoided except in the most exceptional circumstances.
Careful routing requires a much better approach to strategic spatial planning informed by high-integrity environmental information, rationalising the need for energy infrastructure across whole landscapes and seascapes, as well as careful planning of individual projects. The forthcoming Strategic Spatial Energy Plan should have a clear objective to minimise harm to protected, priority and irreplaceable wildlife sites and species, plus explicit plans for enhancing the natural environment overall.
As well as careful siting, decisions on pylon design need to be informed by local ecological needs. In some rare cases, underground cables may be the most appropriate, however generally constructing underground cables results in greater land disturbance compared to pylons. Overhead lines may require ongoing control/cutting of the vegetation beneath them, which can be damaging if passing through woodlands. If harm cannot be avoided or adequately mitigated, high levels of compensation should be applied, and carefully monitored. In these circumstances, the newly designed T-pylons which have a smaller ground footprint than the traditional lattice pylons, requiring 3 times less ground area and 1.5 times less concrete in construction, may be appropriate.
Finally, it is important that all pylon projects fall within a new version of the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) regime. Plans to extend mandatory BNG (requiring a net gain for nature from development projects) to major infrastructure by November 2025 have not yet been progressed. The new Government should hit the accelerator and lay regulations to apply a new form of BNG to all projects consented through the NSIP regime (including major pylon programmes). The regulations should be introduced before the end of 2024, live projects such as the East Anglia plan need to make their contribution to nature recovery. The type of BNG that will apply to such projects from 2025 will have to differ from that currently applying to residential development, to enable nature gains from major infrastructure to be on the same big, strategic scale as the projects themselves.
Overall, to ensure that clean energy infrastructure developments work with nature and not against it, the Government must:
(1) Get the site right: For pylons specifically this means decisions about the route and type of cabling along the route to be made on a case-by-case basis so as to not harm irreplaceable habitats and minimise impacts to other ecological features.
(2) Ensure development is green by design: New energy infrastructure to support the transition to net zero must be planned, designed, and built with protecting and restoring biodiversity and natural ecosystems at the core.
(3) Restore nature now: Use a variant of BNG designed for major infrastructure to unlock strategic investment from clean energy infrastructure projects for habitats and species.
In order to do this well, the Government should make sure that all the relevant decision-makers have a clear duty to act in a way that helps to deliver the Environment Act targets as well as climate change objectives. Incorporating biodiversity duties in the remit of bodies like Great British Energy, the Crown Estate, and the National Energy System Operator would be a quick and effective way for the new government to ensure that climate and nature action can go hand-in-hand.
Lisa Manning is a Policy & Engagement Officer at WCL. Follow @wcl_news
The opinions expressed in this blog are the authors and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
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