Who Are 'Your Energy'?

The developer of the proposed Cambridge Wind Farm is a company based in Ipswich called 'Your Energy Ltd'. For this planning application they have set up a wholly owned subsidiary called 'Cambridge Wind Farm Ltd'.

Some facts about 'Your Energy':

• They have yet to produce a single watt of electricity.
  
  
• Their first successful planning application for a 4 turbine wind farm in the Orkneys was sold to Southern and Scottish Energy prior to construction. The cost of the wind farm was reported in the Scotsman (7/02/2004) as £8.3m

• Their second and only other planning permission for a 10 turbine wind farm near Kettering has been transferred to Mistral Invest, a company registered in the Bahamas. The directors of 'Your Energy' regard this company as their immediate parent company according to 'Your Energy's' Annual Report (31/12/2002).
  
  
• However, their ultimate controlling party, through a further company in the Bahamas appears to be Consolidated Navigation Corporation, a company incorporated in the Marshall Islands, a well known tax haven! This is a very complicated ownership structure for a U.K. energy company.

• There are only around 12 employees of 'Your Energy Ltd'.
  
  
• They admit that they carry out no research into developing renewable energy technology.

It remains to be seen whether 'Your Energy' are serious about operating wind farms in the U.K. or whether their business model is based on obtaining planning permissions for wind farms and then selling them on for a very lucrative profit. This would be a cynical exploitation of the Renewable Obligations Certificates subsidy system put in place by the government to encourage the development of renewable energy technology.

However, with these subsidies accounting for 76% of the income of the Cambridge Wind Farm Ltd., which is estimated at £148m over the 25 year life of the project, the estimated £90+m profit that will result does lead to the thought that the driving force behind this application in a totally unsuitable site might be more greed than green!! Indeed one of the Directors of 'Your Energy' at their exhibition said , when asked how much money they would make out of the scheme, said "It's the stuff dreams are made of."

How Do They Operate? - The Theory

In their brochure 'Your Energy' states:

• "Your Energy believes that the Renewables Obligation together with technological advances allow a new approach to be pursued:

  - Appropriate projects - sympathetic to the local community

  - Up front consultation with local stakeholders prior to planning the application submission."

• "We are committed to working together with the local community and ensure that they are consulted and informed of developments."

How Do They Operate - The Reality

6th May 2003
Planning application for anemometer mast by Your Energy (YE). So they must have been working on finding the site for some months before.

2nd July 2003
South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) approve anemometer planning application. Members stressed that this consent in no way indicated any support for a wind turbine(s) on this site. Members felt that this was an area of attractive countryside which would be damaged by such a facility.

July 2003
Leases on land negotiated.

21st Sept 2003
YE write "over the next few weeks we will begin to formalise dates to tour the local area to share our initial thoughts".

22nd Sept 2003
YE start discussions with SCDC about Scoping Document and Environmental Impact Assessment.

24th Oct 2003
Request for a Formal Scoping Option, but with no inclusion of local parishes or district councillors, but did include the county archaeologist!!

11th Nov 2003
Presentation by YE to SCDC councillors.

21st Nov 2003
First official meeting between YE and the planners. YE said that it expected to announce and discuss the project locally in Jan '04. YE were advised to involve the Parish Councils as early as possible.

Jan 2004
Scoping Document enters public domain, but no one informs local people.

19th April 2004
Advice from Dulas Ltd (the firm employed by 'Your Energy' to develop the planning application) that the application would be submitted in early May. Had informed SCDC previously that public consultation would be pre-application in February.

10th May 2004
FIRST NOTIFICATION TO GENERAL PUBLIC!! Press release issued by YE. Plan to be submitted by the end of the month.

19th May 2004
YE Exhibition in Boxworth Village Hall. This was communication not consultation. The plan was a fait accompli.

June 29th 2004
SCDC Planning Dept. write "It is regrettable that Your Energy did not carry out early consultation. You will need to ask the company why this did not happen."

July 3rd 2004
Letter written to YE asking why. There has been no reply to date.

10th August 2004
Planning application submitted with minimal changes. This raises a number of issues:

1. Why did 'Your Energy' ignore their own best practice and cut out all communication with local residents?

2. Why have 'Your Energy' not mentioned the options on an additional 9 turbines they have in their agreements with the landowners. In their press release on 11th May they talk about plans for 9 turbines at Stags Holt. Once planning had been obtained for these a further application for another 9 was put in. Will we get another 9 as well?

3. If this is an appropriate project, and one that they are confident that will benefit the local community, why have they not engaged in any consultation with the people affected? Cynically you might think they had something to hide and were hoping that they could get the application approved before anybody knew about it. It has been up to Stopcwf to hold 12 public meetings, leaflet villages and hold many exhibitions. 'Your Energy' have been notable by their absence!!

4. What else are they not telling us?