'It would break my heart' - wind farm plans leave people divided

From a hillside above Abercarn in Caerphilly county, Grace Lloyd points across the moorland she can see from her home.

"We're sort of surrounded by where the wind farms are going to be," she said.

Familiar electricity pylons are dotted across the common. Planned wind turbines, she said, would be five times taller.

"It would break my heart to see this covered in concrete and bulldozed," she added.

Many people have contacted BBC Your Voice about plans for onshore wind farms across Wales, ahead of the Senedd elections on 7 May.

In March, the Labour-run Welsh government signed a new deal with the energy sector to speed up progress towards its target of meeting 100% of electricity consumption with renewable energy by 2035.

While some fear the impact wind turbines could have on their communities, recent polling carried out by YouGov on behalf of Friends of the Earth Cymru found broad support for renewable energy, including 65% in favour of onshore wind.

Grace, 67, a retired geologist, has lived on the edge of Abercarn for more than 20 years, where housing gives way to open moorland.

She contacted BBC Your Voice to share her concerns.

"I saw this house and I just utterly fell in love," she said. "You can walk and you're away from the world."

Grace said she supported renewable energy and already lived with wind turbines in view.

"Out of my window I can see eight turbines," she said. "I'm not a 'nimby' by any means."

What worries her is the scale of what is now being proposed, which includes up to 20 new turbines, three of which could be 180 metres (590ft) tall.

"It's so hard to imagine something that size until you've seen them," she said.

Grace fears the landscape she loves, which supports nesting birds and amphibians, will be permanently altered.

"We must have renewable energy," she said. "But we're also supposed to be protecting natural habitats. I don't see much effort to find a compromise."

Grace often takes her granddaughter, nearly five, onto the moor.

"It's her heritage," she said. "The thought that she would grow up surrounded by an industrial energy park is heartbreaking."

James Robson from RES, which has proposed 13 turbines in the area, said their project "considers the local landscape, the environment and local communities" and could deliver "£26.3m investment into the Welsh economy", as well as a "community benefit package worth £9.5m".

A spokesperson for Pennant Walters said its proposed development of three turbines would provide green energy to "just over 13,000 homes annually", and is offering "significant community benefits", including the "potential for local ownership".

Further west, Bob Horton contacted BBC Your Voice concerned about much larger turbines.

Bob, 67, retired to Rhydcymerau, a tiny hamlet in Carmarthenshire, three years ago after decades of living in major cities. He said he had found the local community "so accommodating".

"There's not a whole lot in the village apart from that community spirit," he said.

Within a kilometre of his property, Bob said turbines up to 230 metres (754ft) high had been proposed, as part of the Glyn Cothi wind farm development of 27 turbines.

"That's twice the height of St Paul's Cathedral in London," he said.

This is one of three sites announced by Wales' new publicly owned renewable energy developer, Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, with similar schemes planned in Rhondda Cynon Taf and on the Conwy-Denbighshire border.

Bob is "more than worried" about what he says are the potential impacts to his quality of life with large turbines nearby, but his biggest fears are the possible impacts on nature and the local economy.

"These are beasts," he said.

"These aren't the pretty ones you see on the side of a hill. These are monsters that you'll be able to see from 10 or 15 kilometres (six or nine miles) away."

Simon Morgan, development director at Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, which is wholly owned by the Welsh government, said the design of Glyn Cothi was still at an "early stage", adding they "look forward" to more local conversations which will help them to "refine" the designs.

In west Cardiff, Cathy Alder contacted BBC Your Voice with a different perspective.

Now in her mid‑60s, Cathy works as a support worker and supports large‑scale wind energy.

"We consume an enormous amount of power," she said. "Almost everything depends on electricity."

Cathy said Wales needed to generate far more of its own energy to tackle climate change and reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels.

"Wales used to have coal mines everywhere," she said. "If not wind turbines, then what?"

She challenged the idea that turbines were ugly.

"I've seen wind farms overseas," she said. "They can be quite majestic."

Wind farms work by using turbines to turn wind into kinetic energy. This is converted into electric and passed through to the National Grid, where it powers homes and businesses.

There are currently 45 onshore wind farms in Wales with turbines ranging from 50 to 150 metres (164ft 1in to 492ft 2in).

Polling carried out by YouGov for Friends of the Earth Cymru suggested the majority of people in Wales had favourable views of renewable technologies, while support was also high for policies that allowed communities to generate and benefit from their own energy.

In 2021, the Welsh government adopted Future Wales: The National Plan 2040, which made renewable energy a national priority.

The plan introduced pre-assessed areas where large wind farms are strongly supported and removed fixed rules on turbine height and distance from homes, instead relying on case-by-case judgement.

Large schemes are often decided by Welsh ministers rather than local councils - a shift supporters say speeds up delivery, but critics argue reduces local influence.

According to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, there have been 73 applications since the National Plan was introduced.

Abi Beck, from RenewableUK Cymru which represents the renewables industry, said Wales "actually hasn't built an onshore wind farm for six years".

People in Wales tend to think we're "doing better than we are", she said, adding "the truth is that we're behind".

With the Senedd elections approaching in May, the issue has taken on added significance.

A Welsh Labour spokesperson said the party's vision was for an "energy‑independent Wales" to protect the country from "unstable global markets", adding it would ensure projects "benefit the communities that host them".

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said Wales could become a "world leader" in renewable energy by harnessing its natural resources, but stressed the need for a "just transition" to green energy, which gives communities "greater ownership" and benefits from projects.

Reform Wales said it opposed the "industrialisation of the countryside", arguing rural land should prioritise food production, habitats and local communities.

A spokesperson for Wales Green Party said renewables were the "cheapest form of energy, but added they "must be developed responsibly," to protect "sensitive ecosystems".

The Welsh Conservatives said they supported renewable energy but would introduce a moratorium on industrial‑scale onshore wind and solar.

Welsh Liberal Democrats MP David Chadwick said Labour's approach to onshore wind and pylons amounted to a "free‑for‑all" driven by speculative developers and large schemes risked "damaging rural landscapes" and tourism.