Regen welcomes the Welsh government’s efforts to address the challenges facing the country’s planning system. Here, Charlotte Wason summarises the key recommendations in our response to its consultation.
Achieving Wales’s target of generating the equivalent of 100% of annual electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2035 will require a planning system capable of delivering renewable generation, energy storage and transmission infrastructure at scale and speed. Our response to the Welsh government’s consultation on promoting a resilient and high-performing planning service focuses on ensuring that proposed reforms support this goal.
Local planning authorities play a vital role in facilitating energy generation and storage projects by developing Renewable Energy Assessments, shaping local policies and assessing applications. However, delays and resource constraints within the planning system are emerging as critical barriers.
Current delays within the planning system
An analysis of the UK government’s Renewable Energy Planning Database highlights key trends:
- Over the past five years, local authorities across Wales received 204 renewable energy planning applications. The time to process these varied by technology, averaging 10 months for onshore wind and four months for solar photovoltaics and battery storage.
- Applications through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects process experienced significantly longer delays. Between 2019 and 2024, Welsh onshore wind projects took an average of 15 months between submission and a decision, while solar and battery projects averaged 15 and 17 months respectively.
These delays reflect systemic resource shortages affecting Planning and Environment Decisions Wales, local authorities and statutory consultees. This limited capacity delays decision-making and denies developers valuable early-stage input, increasing project risks and missing opportunities to achieve better outcomes for local communities.
Regen’s recommendations
To address these challenges, our response highlights three key recommendations:
- Upskilling local authority planners. Targeted training is essential to close the skills gap in renewable energy planning. Local authority planners and those at other decision-making levels need regular, updated training to understand the siting considerations impacting renewable energy projects and any updates to the wider energy system. This training should be available to both existing and new planners and include annual updates to reflect emerging technologies and policy changes. By equipping planners with the necessary expertise, local authorities will be better prepared to manage the increasing volume and complexity of renewable energy applications.
- Bursary and apprenticeship schemes. Regen strongly supports bursary and apprenticeship schemes to address critical skills shortages and attract diverse talent into the planning sector. To maximise impact, these schemes should include dedicated renewable energy planner roles, particularly within Corporate Joint Committees and areas of high strategic importance and be complemented by measures to retain trained planners within the public sector, such as competitive salaries and clear professional development pathways. This dual approach would ensure local authorities have the capacity and expertise to support small-scale and nationally significant projects effectively.
- Renewable energy planning skills hubs. The creation of planning skills hubs focused on renewable energy has the potential to alleviate resource constraints. These hubs could provide access to up-to-date knowledge on renewable energy technologies, offer skilled staff on short notice to support local authorities and deliver targeted training to upskill planners.
Expanding shared-service delivery models and including renewable energy specialists within planning hubs would enable local authorities to pool resources and address resourcing constraints more effectively.
We recognise that these challenges are not unique to Wales – similar reforms are urgently needed across the UK in each devolved nation. Regen will continue to feed into work and discussions in this area to ensure that the planning system can balance the need for developing renewable and energy storage projects at pace to ensure that communities remain at the centre of decision making. If you’re interested in keeping up to date with our work in this area, please register for our next planning working group meeting on 12 February.