Renewable Energy
Experience
Chelgate has been closely involved in the renewable energy movement from its emergence into the political spotlight twenty years ago, and has supported the understanding, development, promotion and planning of alternative resources in a variety of ways.
Chelgate’s knowledge of the issues, the marketplace, and its principal players and influencers is unrivalled. The firm’s focus on the sector is concentrated within Chelgate Environment, a specialist division led by deputy chairman Nick Wood-Dow. He has long had a personal interest in renewable energy. In 1992 he organised a tour of wind farms in the South-West for politicians and their advisers. He has served on the steering group of PRASEG (Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group) and of SEP (Sustainable Energy Partnership). For many years he has been deputy chairman of the Environment Council, which helps to resolve environmental conflicts and is in regular contact with the Renewable Energy Association and RenewableUK.
Since the early 1990s, the consultancy has advised wind energy companies on their approach to local authorities, the planning system, and relationships with communities, while stimulating public interest in wind farms and onshore wind energy around the UK and contributing to intelligent and informed debate. Working alongside a leading independent renewable energy provider, Chelgate’s role has ranged from brokering the dialogue with rural communities to consider the advantages and allay misplaced fears over proposed wind farms, to public affairs initiatives to support the inclusion of renewables within energy policy for wind, solar and biomass, ease planning obstacles and incentivise uptake.
Chelgate worked with what was at the time Britain’s only manufacturer of PV panels, keen to raise the profile of solar power in roofing panels and other applications on the development of a new government sponsored consortium called SCHOLAR to put PV panels on the roofs of 100 schools across the UK. The scheme was ahead of its time and the DTI grants were cut before it was really under way. By comparison, the German government has shown earlier and greater commitment, the country leading the world in solar energy as a result, and today Chelgate is assisting a leading German PV supplier to exploit the less mature UK market.
Appointed by an industrial group to develop the case for a Severn estuary tidal barrage to become government policy, Chelgate undertook a programme of briefings for MPs representing constituencies near the river Severn, with meetings in Parliament and fringe events at the party conferences. The government decided to announce a formal feasibility study of the barrage at the conclusion of our programme, although the concept and development of the barrage is currently on hold.
