Packed meeting urged to support Renewable Energy projects in Leighton Buzzard area

People were urged to support local projects to meet growing demand for electric cars and heating at a packed meeting on renewable energy on Saturday.

The capacity 120 audience at All Saints Church, Leighton Buzzard, was addressed by a panel of experts including John Fairlie, of Leighton Buzzard based AW Renewables.

He told the meeting, organised by South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth, that lack of capacity on the area’s electricity grid had prompted the building of a new renewable energy provision around Leighton Buzzard to directly power electric charging stations for cars and buses.

The key project, already under way, involves the construction of an industry-first Electric Vehicle Charging Station which was given the green light by Central Beds Council in 2021.

It will provide ultra-rapid vehicle charging facilities for Heath and Reach, (equivalent to electricity for 2,500 homes) as well as an electric bus charging hub.

Mr Fairlie explained a further planning application for an energy park with net zero carbon homes and provision of new jobs at Astral Green on the A505 near Astral Lake, had now been submitted to Central Beds Council.

He said: “So the Astral Green planning application went in on Friday and we’ve demonstrated in the local area overwhelming support, but the council won’t see that unless people write in, unless people are actually vocal about the projects and show independently that they would like to see these projects happen. (6 /10).

"AW did a survey of the houses nearby in Billington Park and surrounding area and 87% or residents questioned were in favour.

"Responding to consultations, spreading the word about renewables, responding to local projects, is very, very important.”

Neil Witney, from the Government Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, outlined the significant increase in renewable energy since 2016 and what the government was doing to decarbonise the grid.

He said: “Every year we break new records in delivering more and more renewable electricity in this country. Renewable energy is now competitive in the market, and everyone wants to build renewable electricity generation and get it connected to the grid, but often developers will speculatively buy a grid connection for renewable energy but would be far off from delivering the actual project. As well as this there will be a big increase in demand due to electric cars and electric heating.

"The government was working to resolve this so that there would be a much more efficient and speedy way to join new renewable energy to the grid.”

Paul De Zylva, a senior policy Advisor from National Friends of the Earth, added: “Every home can be its own power station, and this is much cheaper than nuclear which is very costly. Instead, Britain’s housing stock is some of the leakiest in the world, it’s appalling. It’s a national scandal.

"We have the solutions; we don’t need to keep looking round for more solutions to solve the energy conservation crisis or the renewables crisis. “We just need to kind of get on with it.”