One of the UK's independent renewable energy developers, Ecotricity, has said that more wind turbines will be built in urban and industrial areas as power companies look for ways to avoid the planning problems affecting rural generating schemes.
Ecotricity’s managing director, Dale Vince, is quoted by The Guardian as saying that the company is focusing on brownfield sites as planning permission is just so much easier. The group has 20 urban schemes in the pipeline and has already built wind turbines above the Ford diesel engine plant in Dagenham, east London and beside the M4 motorway near Reading.
Mr Vince also said, as cited by The Guardian: In rural areas we repeatedly come up against a minority of local residents and councils adopting the ‘not in my back yard’ approach. It’s the complete opposite in urban/industrial areas where such proposals have been largely welcomed. In some cases they have been approved straight away.