I am a third year geography student studying at Kingston university London. I am currently researching for my dissertation and I intend to answer this question-What are the social and cultural implications of wind farms and how influential are small communities on decision made about renewable energy? It would be beneficial to my research if you could be give me any information on the planning processes that take place specifically in regards to renewable energy and wind farms. I have chosen the Alltwalis wind farm as a case study and so any extra information about that process would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more information from me then feel free to ask.

Thank you for your email. Certain developments, including some renewable energy projects and wind farm proposals, are defined as nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) through the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008) legislation. The process by which NSIPs can gain consents differs from that of Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) applications. I understand that the Alltwalis wind farm was a TCPA application and, as I deal primarily with NSIPs casework, unfortunately I can’t provide any extra information on that particular application. However, I can help explain how individuals or communities are involved in the decision making process on other types of wind farm applications i.e. those made under the PA2008 process.
The PA2008 process involves the examination of NSIPs falling into the following categories; transport, energy, waste, water and waste water. Section 14 of the PA2008 further defines NSIPs; this section might be of interest for you in general terms concerning which types/scales of development fall into the NSIP category. Sections 15 to 21 of the PA2008 act relate to energy and in particular Section 15 of the PA 2008 act defines ‘Generating Stations’. This is the section of the PA2008 act into which wind farms might fall and therefore s15 of the PA 2008 act defines whether a particular generating station development would be considered an NSIP project.
The PA2008 process follows clear statutory deadlines and adheres to the stages of; pre-application, acceptance, pre-examination, examination, decision and post-decision. There are statutory requirements set out for each stage of the process but those of most relevance to your question will be in respect of the requirement for an applicant to engage in Pre-Application consultation and the ability of people to register as Interested Parties to an Examination in order to put their views/opinions/objections to the Examining Authority – the latter is the body that is responsible for making a recommendation to the Secretary of State (SoS). The decision for any NSIP application will be taken by the SoS.
The PA2008 process for NSIPs allows all communities and interested persons/parties to engage with the evolution and examination of a project. During the pre-application stage, it is a statutory requirement for a developer to consult with the local community and a further statutory requirement for the developer to take account of responses received to that consultation (sections 47 and 49 of PA2008). At this pre-application stage individuals have the opportunity to tell the developer their views of the project, whether they support it, think it could be improved, or oppose it – and why. Once an application is formally submitted and has progressed through an Acceptance stage, there will be an Examination. At this point, it is possible for individuals to provide representations through written representations and attending hearings to the Examining Authority. In this way, communities can have their say directly to the Examining Authority who will write the recommendation report to the SoS. Throughout the examination process relevant issues will be considered and examined, these issues may include, as noted in your question, the social and cultural implications of a particular project.
The Planning Inspectorate provides information regarding each stage of the whole process including how individuals/parties can become involved through a series of advice notes which can be viewed on the National Infrastructure Planning pages of the website; attachment 1 Advice note 8: ‘How to get involved in the planning process’, might be of particular interest to you in terms of the part of your question which asks; ‘how influential are small communities on decision made about renewable energy?’ Details of each specific NSIP project where an application has been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate, as well as all the relevant documents for projects can be viewed at: attachment 2
If you have any more specific questions from this brief overview please do contact me and I will try to be of more help.