Why growing political entanglement with renewable energy is a cause for concern in Wales
Why growing political entanglement with renewable energy is a cause for concern in Wales
As renewable energy deployment accelerates across the UK, Wales now presents a particularly clear example of how political, financial and regulatory roles are becoming increasingly intertwined. This is not a matter of rhetoric or opposition to renewable energy itself. It is a question of governance, procedural fairness and the integrity of planning decision making when the state becomes both promoter and arbiter of development.
State ownership and the planning system
The Welsh Government has established Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, a wholly state owned renewable energy development company. Its stated purpose is to develop wind and solar projects in Wales, with an initial focus on land within the Welsh public estate, including land managed by Natural Resources Wales on behalf of the public.
Projects of this scale are expected to require planning consent through national level procedures where Welsh Ministers ultimately hold decision making powers. Although these processes include examination, consultation and reporting stages, the final determination remains a ministerial decision within the same government that owns the developer promoting the scheme.
From a legal and governance perspective, this creates an inherent structural tension. The Welsh Government is placed simultaneously in the position of applicant, landowner, strategic policy setter and final decision maker. Even where internal separation and procedural safeguards exist, the appearance of bias is difficult to avoid. Public law requires not only that decisions are taken fairly, but that they are seen to be taken fairly by an informed and reasonable observer.
Public finance and pension exposure
Alongside direct state development, there is also the issue of public sector financial exposure to renewable energy developers. The Wales Pension Partnership, which pools local authority pension funds across Wales, has invested significant sums in private renewable energy companies operating within the Welsh planning system.
While pension trustees have a fiduciary duty to seek returns, this creates a further layer of entanglement. Local authorities, whose pension funds are invested in energy developers, are also statutory consultees and political stakeholders within planning processes. This does not automatically render decisions unlawful, but it complicates claims of institutional neutrality and raises legitimate concerns about indirect financial incentives influencing policy positions, lobbying intensity or planning culture.
Planning law, bias and public confidence
UK planning law places heavy emphasis on procedural fairness, transparency and the avoidance of predetermination. Decisions must be taken on planning merits, within the framework of development plans and national policy, and free from improper influence. However, the law also recognises that bias can arise not only from actual impropriety, but from circumstances that give rise to a reasonable perception of partiality.
Where a government stands to benefit financially, strategically or reputationally from the approval of its own projects, or from projects in which public funds are invested, the threshold for public concern is lowered. Communities engaging with the planning process may reasonably question whether objections are being weighed with the same independence as applications promoted by purely private actors.
This concern is amplified in the context of nationally significant energy infrastructure, where decisions are often removed from local democratic control and concentrated at ministerial level. The more political capital and public money that becomes embedded in renewable deployment, the harder it becomes to demonstrate that refusal remains a genuinely open outcome.
What this potentially means for energy applications in Wales
For future wind farm and energy development applications in Wales, the implications are significant. Planning decisions may become increasingly vulnerable to legal challenge on grounds of apparent bias, failure to adequately separate roles, or inadequate handling of conflicts of interest. Even where such challenges do not succeed, the erosion of public trust can itself undermine the legitimacy of the planning system.
There is also a wider policy risk. If renewable energy is perceived as politically protected or structurally favoured regardless of local impacts, opposition hardens, consultation becomes adversarial, and planning processes become slower and more contested. This ultimately works against both environmental objectives and democratic accountability.
A governance issue, not an anti renewables argument
It is important to be clear that this is not an argument against renewable energy, nor against public ownership in principle. It is an argument for robust separation of roles, transparent disclosure of interests, and decision making structures that can withstand legal scrutiny and public examination.
As Wales moves deeper into state led renewable development, the onus is on the Welsh Government to demonstrate that planning decisions are insulated from financial and political interests to the highest possible standard. Without that, concerns about bias, whether real or perceived, will continue to grow, and with them the risk of legal challenge, public disengagement and long term damage to confidence in the planning system.
ObjectNow will continue to monitor how these governance issues evolve, and how they affect communities engaging with wind farm and energy infrastructure proposals across Wales.
2 Replies to “Why growing political entanglement with renewable energy is a cause for concern in Wales”
Paul Swann
These issues have been compounded in Powys by the County Council’s recent decision to pursue a voluntary minimum 5 % profit share from large-scale renewable energy projects approved by the Welsh Government, alongside standard community benefit funds. The Cabinet argues this would deliver a lasting legacy for communities and fund local priorities over a project’s lifetime. However, critics have raised concerns that this creates a perceived conflict of interest between the council’s role as a statutory consultee on planning proposals and its pursuit of financial benefit from the same developments.
While the council’s leadership maintains there is no actual conflict of interest, emphasising that planning decisions rest with Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) and ultimately Welsh Government, opponents argue that seeking a share of profits risks undermining the council’s perceived impartiality and its ability to represent community concerns credibly. A council that is producing Local Impact Reports while also making decisions on related proposals — including, at present, a 122.5 metre meteorological mast to generate data for Bute Energy’s Garreg Fawr Energy Park — and simultaneously positioning itself to benefit financially from those projects may struggle to be seen as an independent advocate for local residents.
Whether or not a formal conflict exists under planning law, the perception of competing objectives — community protection versus potential revenue capture — certainly risks eroding public trust and complicating efforts to hold developers to account.
Tim Smith
Excellent article. We think the ministerial code has been repeatedly breached by ministers repeatedly meeting with renewables developers while ignoring residents and campaign groups.