Renewable energy

It was good to see the new wind turbines installed at Avonmouth recently. They're certainly an impressive sight - this photo was taken from Portishead.

In the meantime, we're doing our bit to make small-scale renewable energy cheaper. A while ago a £50 fee was introduced for people wanting advice about permitted development - in other words, whether or not you need to put in a planning application. It turned out that they were even charging for advice on applying to put in solar panels and the like - just the wrong message when you want to encourage them! Now, after pressure by Lib Dem councillors, the charge has been removed completely for advice on renewable energy proposals.

P.S. Those wind turbines weren't the first renewable energy project at Avonmouth. Back in the Eighties the Wessex Water sewage treatment works, which generates electricity from methane, was connected to the mains network. The Evening Post headline at the time was "Power from the people"!