If you have journeyed through the Towy or Teifi valleys over the last year or so, you can’t help but have noticed ‘No Pylons/Dim Peilonau’ signs on gates, outside houses and on road verges. You might have wondered what this is all about and perhaps googled to find out.

So where did it all begin? It started back in 2016 when the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 was amended to include Developments of National Significance (DNS) (Wales) Regulations. This made the Senedd, rather than local council planning departments, the decision maker for large scale (over 50MW) renewable energy projects. To put this number into context, the Brechfa Forest West Wind Farm, which has 28, 145m high turbines, is a 57.4MW project.

There are currently 97 projects listed by various private limited companies on the DNS register, some of which have been completed, others are being researched, and many are work in progress. DNS is currently being replaced by the Infrastructure (Wales) Bill, which will introduce an even easier ‘one-stop shop’ in the Senedd, incorporating all the consents necessary. These DNS applications are for renewable energy projects (e.g. onshore wind and solar farms) and related infrastructure, such as pylons to transmit the energy, and new electricity substations.

So that’s the background. But why are we objecting to pylons? Surely this is part of the UK’s commitment to tackling climate change by ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels’ that was pledged after COP 28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2023? And 27% of electricity produced in Wales comes from renewable sources.

While we are in favour of the benefits of renewable energy, these significant infrastructure projects are being funded and developed by private limited companies and their aim, the same as most businesses, is to generate the maximum profit for their shareholders. This is problematic, as it appears that most of the companies’ investors are outside of Wales, for example in England, Norway, Denmark and the US, and that is where the profits from these Welsh developments will go. 

Prior to the general Election there had been a de facto ban on new onshore wind farm developments in England since 2016. This means that Wales and Scotland have and are taking the burden of new large renewable developments. In fact the majority of the renewable energy proposed for Wales is not for use within Wales but for transmission to, and for sale in, England and beyond. As we already know Wales produces twice as much energy as she consumes and is already a net exporter.

Pylons are now considered old technology by many countries, who are burying high-voltage lines underground, as you would with gas or water. The technology to do this has significantly advanced over the last ten years, and a process called ‘cable ploughing’ means that burying cables is now simpler to implement, causes virtually no impact on the land, and can be used to bury up to 400kV lines. 

However, when cabling is put underground, this is considered a ‘permissible development’ (that is, it doesn’t require planning permission) and as such it is not deemed by a company to be a valuable and re-sellable asset. Green Gen Cymru Ltd. are currently seeking DNS planning permission for two pylon routes:

• Through the Tywi Valley, from the Nant Mithil Energy Park, near Llandrindod to a new substation near Llandyfaelog, in Carmarthenshire.
• Through the Teifi Valley, from Lan Fawr Energy Park, located east of Llanddewi-Brefi also to Llandyfaelog.

These 27m high pylons (the length of a blue whale), will cause many issues for the communities that unwillingly have to host them, including: a reduction in property value, an adverse impact on tourism, loss of wildlife habitat, risk of health issues for those living near the pylons, and the destruction of cherished landscapes.

Our position, as local residents, is that this is totally unacceptable. We must not be treated like collateral damage in Green Gen’s quest for higher profits. Putting the cables underground is the only acceptable solution if these developments are to go ahead.

A few months ago a Senedd motion was proposed by Adam Price to make it mandatory for all new grid lines to be placed underground. Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Jane Dodds, the Lib Dems’ leader in Wales, backed the motion, while Labour backbenchers and ministers voted against it. The motion lost by one vote, which was bitterly disappointing. The Senedd have said, however, that they will look at the wording of the Act and may introduce their own amendment. Join us to keep the pressure on to make the undergrounding of new grid lines above 33kV mandatory.

There are also campaigns running by those who could be subject to 230m (the height of No. 1 Canada Square, the tallest building in Canary Wharf) wind turbines near their communities, as is proposed for Nant Mithil Energy Park, Lan Fawr Energy Park, and elsewhere in Wales. The reality is there are plans afoot to build 100s of wind turbines across Wales’s countryside and link them up to the National Grid.

As well as cable-ploughing as an alternative to pylons, there are also better ways that renewable energy can be generated, such as government-backed small-scale community wind and solar developments, hydro, floating off-shore wind farms, and tidal technology. These solutions would have much less of a negative impact on communities and Nature than the current trajectory of the DNS and Infrastructure (Wales) Bill, and should be explored and implemented by the Senedd as a matter of urgency.

These campaigns are, like us, not ‘anti green energy’ but a response to the danger of the beautiful valleys and mountains of Wales being turned into an industrial landscape to satisfy the energy needs of other countries and the greed of developers. Enough is enough!

Sarah Eyles & Craig Vaux

On behalf of the Teifi Valley Against Pylons campaign

To join us in our campaign visit us on: www.teifivalleyagainstpylons.co.uk