The Welsh Government has appointed industry experts to its Renewable Energy Developer (RED) Programme, responsible for delivering environmental assessments for several significant renewable energy projects across Wales.
The RED Programme will develop wind projects on publicly owned land, supporting the Welsh Government’s commitment to renewable generation delivering tangible benefits to Wales, leading the way in the UK in having a publicly owned renewables developer.
Experts from WSP, our team at Axis, Mott MacDonald, LUC, Temple, Dulas, and JCTR will work closely over the next four years to support the identification and delivery of the projects, providing several key services across environment, transport, planning and heritage specialisms.
The focus is on securing the required environment and planning consent orders to implement energy projects, while advising on the wider planning, transport, ecology, forestry, cultural heritage and social value elements associated with the schemes.
Delivering social value is another important element of the RED Programme which has community and environmental values at its heart, creating jobs and economic value by working with local businesses and suppliers.
Julia James, Minister for Climate Change, said: “I am pleased to announce that we have appointed experts from across the industry to oversee projects by Wales’ publicly owned renewable energy developer company. Their expertise will help deliver our ambitious target to generate over a gigawatt of locally owned energy generation by 2030, and our manifesto commitment to generate at least an additional 100 MW by 2026. I thank all of our new framework members for showing their commitment to their role and look forward to seeing their work in action.”
Project lead at Axis, Technical Director Andrew Russell, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to help make a significant contribution towards achieving their Net Zero commitments. We’re delighted to be part of this experienced and talented team” delivering such an exciting and groundbreaking project.
Mark Hurley, Managing Director for Water, Energy, Earth & Environment at WSP, adds: “We’re thrilled to be supporting the Welsh Government’s commitment to achieve net zero by delivering clean energy projects. The key to decarbonising the UK’s energy supply lies in increasing the capacity of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. WSP is excited to collaborate with our partners to turn this ambition into a reality for the people of Wales.”
