His father believes wind farms are a blot on the landscape, and once said he feared Britain would end up like Denmark “with the bloody things up to our knees”. But now Prince William is considering lifting the de facto ban on royal land.
The Prince of Wales has ordered a major overhaul of renewable energy at his 130,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate, set to change the face of his hereditary property empire that spans 20 counties in England.
William, 42, plans to introduce large-scale solar panel farms, geothermal energy extracted from the Earth’s subsoil and biomass from the decomposition of organic matter alongside onshore wind turbines to increase renewable energy production and help the duchy achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2032.
The duchy’s council, the prince’s council, chaired by William, is due to consider a study – described as a major piece of work – into large-scale renewable energy later this year and sources have made it clear that the installation of wind farms on duchy land is under consideration.
Alastair Martin, the Duchy’s secretary and keeper of the archives, said the government needed to act after seeing the effects of climate change on the estate. “Our farmers have seen a marked increase in extreme weather events. Our maritime estate has seen an increase in sea temperatures. And the impact of prolonged drought on crops is a real problem,” he said, expressing concern about the limitations of farmers’ water supplies. “This is a major concern, which is why we have invested in helping our tenants reduce their emissions and have set our target of net zero emissions by the end of 2032.”
William’s plans are part of the government’s push to develop onshore and offshore wind power, which was boosted last week by a merger between the Crown Estate, nominally owned by the king, and the new state-owned company Great British Energy.
Despite his opposition to onshore wind, the king also supports offshore wind and will see his official income rise by 53% to £132m in 2025-26, as the sovereign grant is linked to the booming £1.1bn annual profits of the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland.
Guillaume, the 25thth The Duke of Cornwall shares his father’s passion for renewable energy and for preserving the Duchy’s most beautiful landscapes, which led the King, when he was Prince of Wales, to block any attempt to build wind turbines on his land. A project in the Isles of Scilly, for example, was rejected by Charles about a decade ago, and the Duchy’s largest landholding is in Dartmoor National Park in Devon, where there is reportedly strong opposition. “The problem with the Duchy of Cornwall estate is that it’s in one of the most beautiful areas of the southwest of England in particular and there are always aesthetic considerations,” Martin said. “And I’m sure those considerations aren’t going to go away because we have a new Duke.”
But even before the government lifted the Conservatives’ de facto ban on new onshore wind farms and announced plans to double the UK’s capacity by 2030, officials in the duchy had been reassessing their approach after the king’s accession to the throne in September 2022 and William took office. They reportedly vowed that if they could find a way to support wind turbines, they would.
In its annual report published last week, the duchy, which was created in 1337 to provide an income for the heir to the throne and paid William £23.6m last year, said: “There is significant theoretical potential for renewable energy generation and storage across our estate, particularly in the context of our development sites and retained buildings.”
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However, there is one form of green energy that he will not support so closely: the country’s first large-scale anaerobic digester and biomethane-to-grid plant at Poundbury in Dorset, which turns crops into gas and electricity.
The plant, run by JV Energen, was long championed by Charles and under his reign the duchy became a majority shareholder. But the duchy’s annual report reveals that William sold his stake in the business for £13.6 million in February this year.
It was sold just over a year after the Guardian revealed that JV Energen had been investigated for numerous health and safety violations following the unauthorised release of more than 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
Duchy officials have insisted the plant has been a great success and suggested it was sold because it was time for someone with broader operational experience to develop it. A spokeswoman said: “We continue to explore renewable energy generation and storage opportunities across the estate.”
