James Evans says there is concern over the prospect of electricity pylons being erected “right the way through” his constituency.
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00:00procedures moving forward.
00:03James Evans AM How is the Welsh Government supporting communities
00:07affected by wind energy proposals in Brecon and Radnorshire?
00:10OAQ52321 Julie James AM The Welsh Government supports new renewable
00:13energy projects to boost UK energy security, create valuable jobs and attract new green
00:18industries to Wales.
00:20Developers need to involve communities to deliver projects and impacts on communities
00:24and the environment, and they are considered through the planning system.
00:28James Evans AM First Minister, many of my constituents
00:31are very concerned about the proposals by Green Gen Cymru to put pylons right the way
00:35through my constituency and other Members' constituencies within this Chamber.
00:40The Welsh Government has set up an independent advisory body to look at the cost analysis
00:44of overgrounding and undergrounding cables.
00:47Many people would have thought that, actually, the analysis would have been done by now and
00:50that data would have been published, so can you provide an update to me of when that data
00:54is going to be published, and, when it is, will the Government send it for independent
00:59academic analysis to make sure that everything has been looked at independently, to make
01:04sure that nothing is skewed one way for one proposal over another?
01:07Julie James AM Well, thanks very much.
01:08I know there's a lot of concern in certain communities about proposals in relation to
01:16energy grids.
01:17That's one of the reasons why we've established this energy grid advisory board and they will
01:21be reporting very, very soon.
01:25One of the things that, obviously, they have been considering is the fact that we do need
01:29to see an increase in the amount of energy that is produced in Wales.
01:34The fact is that estimates suggest we'll need three times as much electricity by 2050 as
01:41we do today, and that's got to come from somewhere and it's got to be transported one way or
01:46another.
01:47I think it's absolutely right that we look at what is the best way to transport this
01:51energy, and we have to do that in a way that is sensitive.
01:55We're working withóI had a conversation with Wind Europe last week to talk about how they
02:02do it on the continent, so we will be doing further studies in relation to that, but you're
02:08quite right, I spoke to the company themselves as well, and emphasised that, actually, any
02:13analysis that they do needs to be independently verified.