Manx Utilities chief, Phil King, talks to Simon Richardson about a planned all-Island consultation on proposals for the Cair Vie onshore windfarm at Earystane in the south of the Island.
Manx Newscast
Manx Newscast: All Island public consultation events for onshore windfarm plans
Hello, I'm Simon Richardson from the Manx Radio Newsroom. A planning application for the Isle of Man's first onshore wind farm is due to be submitted early next year, ahead of that, members of the public are being invited by Manx Utilities to a series of consultation events later this month. The care by wind farm would be cited a deary stain in the south of the island and could provide up to a quarter of our annual electricity needs. I've been talking to the Chief Executive Officer at Manx Utilities, Phil King. What we're trying to do is reach out to the whole island. This is an important project this onshore wind farm. We've been putting information together over the last year and we're in a good position to share all that information with Manx residents which we're really keen to do. In a nutshell, the onshore wind farm is designed to capture our own natural resources, produce homegrown green energy, which we can consume on the island as well. And whilst doing that, obviously it gives us an element of independence and we're seeing a lot of uncertainty and prices for sure on different energy market. So hopefully it will fix some of that price going forward and we're really just keen to share everything we have. And to make it as real as possible, we have arranged a number of events around the island. We have specialist teams that hopefully will be able to address any questions or explain things to residents. And we've got displays which show the journey so far how we've actually got here, why we're doing this. And to make it real, we've also included a 360 degree virtual reality experience. So absolutely nothing to hide. This is what it would look like. And we're trying to recreate that experience online as well, but any people that would prefer just to have a look online. There's a number of feedback portals. And that is a key aspect of this consultation and the way it's been designed. We really want feedback from residents of the Isle of Man. We want to know what people think about this proposition. And more than that, we want to collate that information, analyze it, hear it back to calibrate it, have we heard right, and use it to influence the design going forward. Yeah, it's a big project for the island. I guess the two main issues that concern the people are, of course, the cost of the project, I.e., can we afford it? And the impact of the three to four turbines will have both visually and environmentally. Indeed. So the question of price and cost, if you look, there's some quite good data just recently published in Great Britain, actually, they've just done an auction round for all renewable technologies, including onshore wind. And if you look at the sort of prices that are being put forward, onshore wind farms tend to cost a lot lower than energy produced from traditional power stations. And if you look at the markets at the moment, that's certainly true. So we would hope, and we believe that this project has every possibility of keeping tight pressures on that cost, on that price, to keep customers billed as low as possible. And the other big benefit, there are amounts of really windy place by comparison. So what we lack in economies of scale, which we're often criticized for, things are expensive, I think we can put you above our weight on this one. And, you know, because it's more windy, so the yield is going to be higher. So we're fairly confident. So on the environmental impact, the visual impact, absolutely right. It's a great question. And that's why we wanted to put this 360 virtual reality experience in so people can actually immerse and see what it will be like and comment on that. It's a critical part of the environmental impact assessment. We've had feedback through the scoping report and scoping response from experts in depth, on what to consider, how to consider it. And we have a whole planning process to go through. And as we all know, because we live here, you know, the Isle of Man is a stunningly attractive and beautiful place all across the island. So wherever we put this, it's going to have an impact. There's no question about that. And it's whether it's acceptable or not, we have some trust of faith in the planning process, which is designed to facilitate sustainable development. And that includes, obviously, the environment, the economy, society and climate change is another key pillar of that. So all the information will be there for people to comment on and whether that passes much stuff through the planning process is all we can do is present the best quality information and experience that we have available to us. The turbines would generate up to a quarter, I think, of the island's electricity. How would this be processed, if you like? Could it be linked to the existing power station or would major changes be required there? It's being what I would say very sensibly sized. I think the policy that's been set in my view is smart policy because it will plug straight into the grid and it will work with the existing assets without major concern or modification. So that's a really good benefit of this type of wind farm and that this on this scale. And it's going to be publicly owned and operated by Manx utilities? Yeah. So owned by the people, operated by the people, for the people. I mean, it's all Manx and yeah, that's the cheapest way and the best way we can keep the downward pressure on customer builds if there's another mechanism and we are talking to a number of private contractors as well because this won't be the only part of the solution. Solar is part of the solution and we're seeing increases in solar on the network now. So this is one strand of the whole energy puzzle if you call it that. Now I assume go just returning back to the planning situation. I assume you're expecting some resistance at the planning process, not least from people who may live close by, but I understand that E-restain residents are being contacted directly and offered a chance to meet specialist consultants at dedicated sessions. Indeed, that's right. So we've been really keen, arguably, they're the most important because they live the closest. So we were really keen to send private letters and offer private sessions to discuss in particular concerns that they may have and get them properly recorded so that that can be built into the planning application. So yes, it's what we were keen to do. But we've been very lucky in many ways because when the project was announced a year ago, there had been a number of active liaisons whether it's freedom of information requests, whether it's public meetings, whether it's there's been a whole variety of contact. So, you know, I think it's been there's been parliamentary and parliamentary questions, lots of them on it too. So we know the sort of things that people are keen to discuss and hopefully we'll be able to answer some of those questions, just some of it through some of this process. But you're right, we've targeted the local residents in a bank, really, of the whole island. But it is a whole island project. It is for the benefit of the whole island. So we're really keen to contact everybody and tell everybody about it. Now, the planning process can, as we've heard so many times on the Isle of Man be extremely long-winded, do you have a target date by which you would expect or at least hope work to commence on-site? We've had to make a number of assumptions and we've put that journey on the display boards. We've allowed the best part of the year for the planning process. It may take longer. We don't really know. This is first of a kind on the Isle of Man. It's bound to attract some unique questions and challenges. So we've made that allowance and we've had to put a program together based on a number of assumptions. So yes, if it gets through planning in that sort of time scale, we'd be looking to commence site-enabling activities in 2026. And of course, if I can just add, actually, it's not just planning. It needs to be funded. We need to connect with the supply chain. We need to secure deliveries, contracts, commercial arrangements, all that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of risks still in the project. We're really just at the development phase, but that's had to be very extensive to properly address the environmental issues and that's the requirement of the environmental impact assessment for a planning application. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manks Radian Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. 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