Background to the Prouts Park Turbine
The story starts with the launch of PLANED’s Energy Savers project funded through the Rural Development LEADER+ which was launched in Saundersfoot in 2006.
Pembrokeshire South East Energy Group (PSEEG) was established under this project and became an independent group in in October 2008. Vian and Janet Roberts of PSEEG explain how the Prouts Park project was first conceived:
“We were after all an environmental and energy group; it therefore seemed reasonable that we should turn our minds to develop some, any, form of renewable energy. We were fortunate to still have very close links with PLANED and in 2009 they offered to finance a detailed survey of south east Pembrokeshire to assess what renewable energy projects were possible. The consultants Dulas were selected to undertake this task. They delivered a very detailed survey of the area and came to the conclusion that the only possible option was to pursue consideration of a wind turbine project. They identified eight sites. The ball was now in our court.
Only three sites were practically viable and of these the most suitable was at Island Farm. However the owner was not interested. We looked over the hedge from this site to the next field which happened to be owned by the neighbouring farmer - Nigel Hooper of Prout's Park Farm. He was very interested and the site was almost identical. And that is how the turbine site was selected.
Then the hard work began. Finance for feasibility works was needed. Again PLANED was most helpful and Seren Energy (led by Steve Hack) was appointed.
Vanessa John of PAVS supported PSEEG to consitute a charity. A separate company was set up (which would become Community Energy Pembrokeshire (CEP)) to act as PSEEG's trading arm.
It was necessary to get the local communities onside and many happy hours were spent travelling around and visiting the various local councils in south east Pembrokeshire and explaining the benefits to them of the project. At this time it was envisaged that, with the possibility of Feed in Tariffs, there would be significant profits from the venture and this would be made available for local community councils to undertake environmentally sound projects in their areas.
With the feasibility work completed, the next step was to get further finance to proceed with further legal work (appointment of solicitor) option for lease etc. Here the Welsh Government was most helpful with funding being made available from their Ynni'r Fro programme. Shortly after this point the Welsh Government hit a funding problem (*caused by uncertainty over whether Welsh Government grant funding for development would impact on the projects ability to access feed In tariff) and for a while it looked as if the turbine project was doomed. However developer Steve Hack came forward with a proposal - a joint venture between PSEEG and Seren Energy: E W Energy was formed. Seren provided most of the initial finance and profits were to be shared between the two partners. At this point ill health stepped in and PSEEG had to pass the project on to Neil Sefton and Ben Ferguson Walker (Ynni’r Fro Officer) to guide the project through the next stage.
We both consider it very lucky that others were prepared to take the onerous burden of carrying the project to its now successful conclusion. It has made the early work we undertook all those years ago all seem worthwhile. Another positive is that now, much to our surprise, we can see, whilst sitting in our front garden, the actual turbine turning in the distance.”
Land agreements were secured with Prouts Park farm in 2012 with an additional agreement with Islands Farm in 2014 . This was required for an access track that would avoid the need to deliver the construction through East Williamston village.
Neil Sefton former chair of Community Energy Pembrokeshire:
“I believe Vian and Janet deserve most of the credit for actions taken before Vian’s unfortunate illness. They were PSEEG, even though there was a committee and members, and without their determination, dedication and effort there would be no wind turbine at Prouts Park.
Following Vian’s illness I stepped into the chair of PSEEG, with Janet as secretary, and took over as the main director of CEP: I approached Ben to join as a director which allowed Vian, Janet to resign. Ben and I worked closely with Steve Hack (Seren) reviewed the business model, based on several scenarios with variables including model of turbine; generation; business plan and Seren’s relationship with CEP.
During this time it was agreed to end the joint venture, close down EW Energy and change the relationship with Seren: they would receive an income-based fee as a ‘licence’ to cover their input. It was Seren who prepared the Planning Application: Seren’s involvement, Steve Hack in particular, in that process was invaluable. At this point in 2015 that Ben and I approached Peter Davies to join the board of CEP.”
Neil resigned as a Director of CEP in October 2016 after taking the project through the planning stage, with Peter Davies taking on the Chair and Roxanne Treacy joining the Board. The Planning Application was submitted in July 2015 for a 500kW turbine based on the most attractive terms for the Feed in Tariff. The terms of the Feed in Tariff at this point led to a projected £2 million in community benefit over 20 years of the operation of the turbine.
Unfortunately, this application was rejected by one vote in November 2015 only to be passed through appeal in September 2016. This delay had significant impact on the project due to unforeseen regulatory changes to the Feed in Tariff, placing the development on a treadmill of reducing tariff and it was viewed not to be a bankable project based on the business plan as submitted. The grid constraints had also become a significant issue at this point so that the project was not able to secure grid connection and register with OFGEM gaining pre-registration for the Feed in Tariff. This was resolved in 2017 as grid operators rolled out Active Network Management enabling the project to secure a 900kW grid connection, which also made the difference in the project viability needed to proceed. Pre registration for the Feed in Tariff went live in October 2018 giving 18 months to finance and build out the development securing the much reduced Feed in Tariff.
Over this period CEP strengthened its Board and worked closely with the Welsh Government Energy Service in developing the business plan for Prouts Park. Ruth Lovell, Luke Stanley and Jane O'Brien joined as Directors and the decision was taken to purchase a new turbine through EWT as opposed the alternative refurbished turbine option. Capital Law were appointed as legal advisers, and a proposal for a loan to cover the construction costs was submitted to the Development Bank of Wales through Renewable Power Pembrokeshire (RPP). RPP was established by the Directors of CEP as a Cooperative to be the vehicle for operating the turbine in order to be able to run a share offer which would be a condition of the loan.
RPP became the legal entity responsible for constructing and operating the Prouts Park turbine with any future surplus arising being allocated to CEP for distribution to the local community and to support community energy generations across Pembrokeshire. CEP at this point had also been successful in securing a LEADER funded Local Energy Action project to work in communities across the County.
The RPP Board is Chaired by Peter Davies, and Directors included Felix Merry, Brian Mark, Roxanne Treacy and Jane O'Brien.
An agreement was secured with Seren that terminated the joint venture. Very sadly Steve Hack who had been hugely instrumental in developing the scheme passed away in 2019 – a huge loss to the renewable energy sector in Wales.
Notice of agreement to the loan was received from the Development Bank in February 2019, but it took until October 2019 before this was confirmed. The delay was due to the lengthy negotiations to secure final agreement with the two landowners concerned, with Prouts Park farm having changed ownership in 2016. Robert Owen Community Bank provided important bridging loan support over this period. Around this time Paul Cowley joined CEP as a Director.
Work on site began in earnest in October 2019 with the absolute deadline for completion to meet FiT deadline of March 31st. Quad Consult appointed to work on behalf of CEP as the owner’s engineer and a Power Purchase Agreement was signed between RPP and Bristol Energy. The wettest winter on record provided the final challenge causing constructions costs to rise. The turbine finally being erected by EWT and Windcare at 1am on a Sunday morning in late January making use of the only time in the allocated window when wind speeds were low enough to proceed.
The turbine was formally commissioned on March 20th and registration with Ofgem completed on March 31st. The next stage in the story will be the launch of a community share offer in the Autumn to widen the community participating and benefiting from the turbine. A final word from Peter Davies the current Chair of CEP and RPP:
"I have been pleased to have chaired this process since 2016, especially having been Commissioner for Sustainable Futures working to promote renewable energy across Wales. It has been a great learning experience. The project history demonstrates the importance of voluntary leadership; the role of community development organisations; the essential specialist support & grant aid provided through Welsh Government; the legal advice from Capital Law; bridging loans from Robert Owen Community Banking ; the collaboration with landowners; the partnership with private companies like EWT, Windcare & Western Power Distribution and of course the financing through the Development Bank of Wales
There are a lot of lessons through this process. It has taken far too long. It is a case study in how Welsh Government ambition struggled to be achieved, squeezed between its lack of control on UK energy policy and the interpretation of its policy by local government. The delays caused by the issue of grant support and FIT eligibility, the initial planning rejection and subsequent changes in UK govt policy is estimated to have lost Pembrokeshire in the region of £2million over the 20 years of the project. It transformed the final stage of the project into being a high risk exercise entirely dependent being volunteer directors commitment to deliver a community owned renewable energy project.
It is important to acknowledge that the project has been led by volunteer directors from its origins in 2006 to completion of construction in 2020. The baton had to be passed on with ill health and project fatigue taking its toll on volunteers through this period. I want to thank all those who played their part and particularly the CEP/RPP volunteer directors who I worked with to see the project through the challenging final stage and on their behalf a final thanks to the great support received from Welsh Government’s Energy Service throughout this period."
Pembrokeshire South East Energy Group (PSEEG) was established under this project and became an independent group in in October 2008. Vian and Janet Roberts of PSEEG explain how the Prouts Park project was first conceived:
“We were after all an environmental and energy group; it therefore seemed reasonable that we should turn our minds to develop some, any, form of renewable energy. We were fortunate to still have very close links with PLANED and in 2009 they offered to finance a detailed survey of south east Pembrokeshire to assess what renewable energy projects were possible. The consultants Dulas were selected to undertake this task. They delivered a very detailed survey of the area and came to the conclusion that the only possible option was to pursue consideration of a wind turbine project. They identified eight sites. The ball was now in our court.
Only three sites were practically viable and of these the most suitable was at Island Farm. However the owner was not interested. We looked over the hedge from this site to the next field which happened to be owned by the neighbouring farmer - Nigel Hooper of Prout's Park Farm. He was very interested and the site was almost identical. And that is how the turbine site was selected.
Then the hard work began. Finance for feasibility works was needed. Again PLANED was most helpful and Seren Energy (led by Steve Hack) was appointed.
Vanessa John of PAVS supported PSEEG to consitute a charity. A separate company was set up (which would become Community Energy Pembrokeshire (CEP)) to act as PSEEG's trading arm.
It was necessary to get the local communities onside and many happy hours were spent travelling around and visiting the various local councils in south east Pembrokeshire and explaining the benefits to them of the project. At this time it was envisaged that, with the possibility of Feed in Tariffs, there would be significant profits from the venture and this would be made available for local community councils to undertake environmentally sound projects in their areas.
With the feasibility work completed, the next step was to get further finance to proceed with further legal work (appointment of solicitor) option for lease etc. Here the Welsh Government was most helpful with funding being made available from their Ynni'r Fro programme. Shortly after this point the Welsh Government hit a funding problem (*caused by uncertainty over whether Welsh Government grant funding for development would impact on the projects ability to access feed In tariff) and for a while it looked as if the turbine project was doomed. However developer Steve Hack came forward with a proposal - a joint venture between PSEEG and Seren Energy: E W Energy was formed. Seren provided most of the initial finance and profits were to be shared between the two partners. At this point ill health stepped in and PSEEG had to pass the project on to Neil Sefton and Ben Ferguson Walker (Ynni’r Fro Officer) to guide the project through the next stage.
We both consider it very lucky that others were prepared to take the onerous burden of carrying the project to its now successful conclusion. It has made the early work we undertook all those years ago all seem worthwhile. Another positive is that now, much to our surprise, we can see, whilst sitting in our front garden, the actual turbine turning in the distance.”
Land agreements were secured with Prouts Park farm in 2012 with an additional agreement with Islands Farm in 2014 . This was required for an access track that would avoid the need to deliver the construction through East Williamston village.
Neil Sefton former chair of Community Energy Pembrokeshire:
“I believe Vian and Janet deserve most of the credit for actions taken before Vian’s unfortunate illness. They were PSEEG, even though there was a committee and members, and without their determination, dedication and effort there would be no wind turbine at Prouts Park.
Following Vian’s illness I stepped into the chair of PSEEG, with Janet as secretary, and took over as the main director of CEP: I approached Ben to join as a director which allowed Vian, Janet to resign. Ben and I worked closely with Steve Hack (Seren) reviewed the business model, based on several scenarios with variables including model of turbine; generation; business plan and Seren’s relationship with CEP.
During this time it was agreed to end the joint venture, close down EW Energy and change the relationship with Seren: they would receive an income-based fee as a ‘licence’ to cover their input. It was Seren who prepared the Planning Application: Seren’s involvement, Steve Hack in particular, in that process was invaluable. At this point in 2015 that Ben and I approached Peter Davies to join the board of CEP.”
Neil resigned as a Director of CEP in October 2016 after taking the project through the planning stage, with Peter Davies taking on the Chair and Roxanne Treacy joining the Board. The Planning Application was submitted in July 2015 for a 500kW turbine based on the most attractive terms for the Feed in Tariff. The terms of the Feed in Tariff at this point led to a projected £2 million in community benefit over 20 years of the operation of the turbine.
Unfortunately, this application was rejected by one vote in November 2015 only to be passed through appeal in September 2016. This delay had significant impact on the project due to unforeseen regulatory changes to the Feed in Tariff, placing the development on a treadmill of reducing tariff and it was viewed not to be a bankable project based on the business plan as submitted. The grid constraints had also become a significant issue at this point so that the project was not able to secure grid connection and register with OFGEM gaining pre-registration for the Feed in Tariff. This was resolved in 2017 as grid operators rolled out Active Network Management enabling the project to secure a 900kW grid connection, which also made the difference in the project viability needed to proceed. Pre registration for the Feed in Tariff went live in October 2018 giving 18 months to finance and build out the development securing the much reduced Feed in Tariff.
Over this period CEP strengthened its Board and worked closely with the Welsh Government Energy Service in developing the business plan for Prouts Park. Ruth Lovell, Luke Stanley and Jane O'Brien joined as Directors and the decision was taken to purchase a new turbine through EWT as opposed the alternative refurbished turbine option. Capital Law were appointed as legal advisers, and a proposal for a loan to cover the construction costs was submitted to the Development Bank of Wales through Renewable Power Pembrokeshire (RPP). RPP was established by the Directors of CEP as a Cooperative to be the vehicle for operating the turbine in order to be able to run a share offer which would be a condition of the loan.
RPP became the legal entity responsible for constructing and operating the Prouts Park turbine with any future surplus arising being allocated to CEP for distribution to the local community and to support community energy generations across Pembrokeshire. CEP at this point had also been successful in securing a LEADER funded Local Energy Action project to work in communities across the County.
The RPP Board is Chaired by Peter Davies, and Directors included Felix Merry, Brian Mark, Roxanne Treacy and Jane O'Brien.
An agreement was secured with Seren that terminated the joint venture. Very sadly Steve Hack who had been hugely instrumental in developing the scheme passed away in 2019 – a huge loss to the renewable energy sector in Wales.
Notice of agreement to the loan was received from the Development Bank in February 2019, but it took until October 2019 before this was confirmed. The delay was due to the lengthy negotiations to secure final agreement with the two landowners concerned, with Prouts Park farm having changed ownership in 2016. Robert Owen Community Bank provided important bridging loan support over this period. Around this time Paul Cowley joined CEP as a Director.
Work on site began in earnest in October 2019 with the absolute deadline for completion to meet FiT deadline of March 31st. Quad Consult appointed to work on behalf of CEP as the owner’s engineer and a Power Purchase Agreement was signed between RPP and Bristol Energy. The wettest winter on record provided the final challenge causing constructions costs to rise. The turbine finally being erected by EWT and Windcare at 1am on a Sunday morning in late January making use of the only time in the allocated window when wind speeds were low enough to proceed.
The turbine was formally commissioned on March 20th and registration with Ofgem completed on March 31st. The next stage in the story will be the launch of a community share offer in the Autumn to widen the community participating and benefiting from the turbine. A final word from Peter Davies the current Chair of CEP and RPP:
"I have been pleased to have chaired this process since 2016, especially having been Commissioner for Sustainable Futures working to promote renewable energy across Wales. It has been a great learning experience. The project history demonstrates the importance of voluntary leadership; the role of community development organisations; the essential specialist support & grant aid provided through Welsh Government; the legal advice from Capital Law; bridging loans from Robert Owen Community Banking ; the collaboration with landowners; the partnership with private companies like EWT, Windcare & Western Power Distribution and of course the financing through the Development Bank of Wales
There are a lot of lessons through this process. It has taken far too long. It is a case study in how Welsh Government ambition struggled to be achieved, squeezed between its lack of control on UK energy policy and the interpretation of its policy by local government. The delays caused by the issue of grant support and FIT eligibility, the initial planning rejection and subsequent changes in UK govt policy is estimated to have lost Pembrokeshire in the region of £2million over the 20 years of the project. It transformed the final stage of the project into being a high risk exercise entirely dependent being volunteer directors commitment to deliver a community owned renewable energy project.
It is important to acknowledge that the project has been led by volunteer directors from its origins in 2006 to completion of construction in 2020. The baton had to be passed on with ill health and project fatigue taking its toll on volunteers through this period. I want to thank all those who played their part and particularly the CEP/RPP volunteer directors who I worked with to see the project through the challenging final stage and on their behalf a final thanks to the great support received from Welsh Government’s Energy Service throughout this period."