His father thinks windfarms are a blot on the landscape, once saying he feared Britain would end up like Denmark “knee deep in these damn things”. But now Prince William is considering overturning their effective ban on royal land.
The Prince of Wales has ordered a major review of renewable energy on his 130,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate, which is expected to change the face of his hereditary property empire stretching across 20 counties in England.
William, 42, is looking at introducing large-scale solar panel farms, geothermal energy extracted from beneath the Earth’s surface, and biomass from decaying organic matter alongside onshore wind turbines to increase renewable energy output and help the duchy reach net zero carbon emissions by 2032.
The duchy’s board, the prince’s council, which is chaired by William, is expected to consider a study – described as a significant piece of work – on large-scale renewable energy later this year and sources have made it clear that putting wind farms on duchy land is up for consideration.
Alastair Martin, secretary and keeper of the records at the duchy, explained that it needed to act after seeing the effects of climate change across the estate. “Our farmers have seen a marked increase in weather extremes. Our marine estate has seen a rise in sea temperature. And the impact of prolonged drought on cropping is a real issue,” he said, expressing concern about limits on water supplies for farmers. “This is a big concern, which is why we have been investing to support our tenants to reduce emissions and have set our net zero target for late 2032.”
William’s plans promise to dovetail with the government’s efforts to expand onshore and offshore wind energy. They were bolstered last week by a tie-up between the Crown Estate, nominally owned by the king, and the new publicly owned company Great British Energy.
In spite of his opposition to onshore wind, the king too supports turbines out at sea and will see his official income rise by 53% to £132m in 2025-26 because the sovereign grant is benchmarked to the booming £1.1bn annual profits of the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland.
William, the 25th Duke of Cornwall, shares his father’s passion for renewable energy but also for preserving the most beautiful landscapes in the duchy, which meant the king when he was Prince of Wales blocked any attempt to build wind turbines on its land. One project in the Isles of Scilly was given short shrift by Charles a decade or so ago, for example, and the duchy’s biggest landholding is in Dartmoor National Park in Devon, where there would be strong opposition. “The issue with the Duchy of Cornwall estate is that it happens to be in some of the most beautiful parts of the south-west of England particularly and there are always aesthetic considerations,” Martin said. “And I’m sure those are not going to go away because we’ve got a new duke.”
But even before the government lifted the Conservatives’ de facto ban on new onshore windfarms and announced plans to double the UK’s capacity by 2030, duchy officials had reappraised their approach after the king acceded to the throne in September 2022 and William took over. They are understood to have vowed that if they can find a way to support turbines they will.
In its annual report, published last week, the duchy, which was created in 1337 to provide an income for the heir to the throne and paid William £23.6m last year, said: “There is great theoretical potential for the generation and storage of renewable energy across our estate, particularly in the context of our development sites and retained buildings.”
However, one form of green energy it will not be so closely supporting is the country’s first full-scale anaerobic digester and biomethane-to-grid plant at Poundbury in Dorset, which turns crops into gas and electricity.
The plant, run by JV Energen, was long championed by Charles and under him the duchy became a majority shareholder. But the duchy’s annual report reveals that William sold its stake in the firm for £13.6m in February this year.
It was sold just over a year after the Guardian revealed that JV Energen had been investigated for numerous health and safety breaches following the unauthorised leak of more than 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
Duchy officials insisted the plant had been a great success and suggested it had been sold because it was time for someone with broader operational experience to develop it. A spokeswoman said: “We continue to investigate opportunities for the generation and storage of renewable energy across the estate.”
