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The Environment Minister has revealed he would be "more inclined" to see the development of a £2-3bn wind farm in Jersey’s territorial waters financed through the private sector, rather than a partnership involving public funds... but what do the public think?
Deputy Steve Luce's comments came after islanders who responded to a consultation on whether they would like to see the offshore facility brought to fruition overwhelmingly indicated their support for the project.
Deputy Luce has also thrown his backing behind the development, which he said would provide “lots of opportunities”.
But, he cautioned that there were still hurdles to overcome, including how the wind farm would be funded – with such a project estimated to be in the region of £2bn to £3bn.
Express took a closer look at the array of views on possible funding options...
Pictured: Environment Minister Steve Luce has said he is "more inclined" to see the wind farm project privately funded if States Members agree to pursue it.
Deputy Luce hopes the States Assembly will set a “clear mandate” to move forward with the project when they debate the matter next month.
In October, the Council of Ministers lodged a proposition asking politicians to give in-principle support to the idea of a wind farm off the south-west coast.
Around 1,000 Islanders have since responded to the proposal in a consultation, which is summarised in a report published this week.
Of the 97% of respondents who provided their “current opinion” about developing a wind farm in Jersey waters, the report states that the majority (71.8%) were “positive” while 23.5% were “negative” and 4.7% of responses were neither for nor against the proposal.
Pictured: States Members are next month due to debate whether to pursue the development of a wind farm in Jersey's territorial waters.
Deputy Luce said: “I’m really hopeful that the States Assembly are going to give me a quite clear mandate to go away and move forward.
“The reason we want a clear mandate from the Assembly next month is, as we move forward with this, any potential private developer or developers generally will be wanting to see that there’s a clear direction here from government, from the States Assembly.
“There may well be a few – I hope it’s only just a very few – who don’t want to move forward. That’s within their rights, but I’d like the States to come out with a very clear direction that we’re keen on this. We want to see it work.”
Deputy Luce said he hoped the Assembly would provide a "clear mandate" that it was in favour of a wind farm for Jersey.
He added that there was “lots of potential” for the project to generate income for the island, in addition to creating jobs.
“There’s lots of opportunity, but we need to get over the hurdles, environmental impact being one of them – and that’s a big one – as well as how we fund it and the sort of model [of energy usage], whether it’s all into Europe, all through Jersey and export or whether it’s a combination of the two.”
The consultation also revealed that, of the respondents who indicated their preferred funding model for the scheme, a mix of both private and public funding proved the most popular – although many leaned towards the former as either the sole (20%) or main (22%) source of funding.
Pictured: Some of the responses to the public consultation.
Respondents who supported private funding, meanwhile, emphasised the expertise and resources that private investors would need to bring.
Other benefits suggested included the efficiency and accountability of private funding mechanisms, while some pointed out that private funding could lead to faster project implementation and reduce the reliance on public resources.
It was also suggested that as much of the construction and maintenance as possible should be done by islanders, possibly with added training and apprenticeships, to "make our workforce more diverse".
Pictured: The consultation revealed support for a wind farm funded through a public and private partnership.
Public funding either solely (8%) or majority were less popular. Those supporting public ownership felt that the income generated should come back into the public purse and that a public entity would ensure the cost of electricity in the island could be better controlled.
Deputy Luce said: "If there was one surprise in the report, for me, it was the level of support publicly for a public [and] private partnership. I would have thought that more people would have said, 'just take it easy government – it's taxpayers money, we don't want you throwing it at wind farms,' which can and have been in the past not easy to make money out of."
He continued: "But there's a clear desire within the responses from the consultation to look at public private and we will need to do that."
Former Environment Minister Jonathan Renouf last year revealed that potential commercial partners had already indicated an interest in the project, while Jersey Electricity chief executive Chris Ambler also said there had been “a few approaches” from external developers.
Pictured: JE chief executive Chris Ambler last year suggested islanders could invest in the wind farm project.
At the time, Mr Ambler suggested that such a scheme could enable islanders to take “an ownership interest” in the development by making their own investments of as little as £500.
Deputy Luce said: "I would be probably more inclined to go towards the private sector, but I accept that Jersey Electricity have expressed a lot of interest.
"We need to see how they might be or not be involved in the project.
"As a 62% shareholder of the JEC, that may well be a way that the public could express an interest in getting involved."
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