South West producing only one per cent of energy from renewable sources

The region, which currently has a total of 211 megawatts (MW) of installed renewable energy capacity will need a further 7,000 MW to reach the 15 per cent target.

The annual 'Survey of Renewable Electricity And Heat Projects In South West England' put the slow growth of renewable electricity down to too long approval times for larger projects and claimed the region must move much more quickly with the approval process. The region’s renewable electricity has grown from 2.89 MW to 155 MW over the last four years, and has a further 171.65 MW approved and waiting to be built.

More encouragingly, the survey showed a 10-fold increase in renewable heating and uptake of burning wood from sustainable, local sources rather than using gas and oil for heating – mainly due to new biomass boilers fitted – but the region still needs another 1,850 MW to meet its 2020 renewable heat target.

Merlin Hyman, Regen SW chief executive, said: "We have seen a remarkable increase in the amount of heat being generated from renewable sources in the south west over the past 12 months, and this is set to increase even further over the next couple of years.

"The UK's EU targets show that by 2020 we must generate 15 per cent of our energy from renewable sources, and currently the south west is only managing about one per cent.  This task will require change on a much larger scale, and the low increase in renewable electricity shows that we have a long way to go.”

Cornwall is the best performing county in the region, both in terms of renewable electricity and renewable heat, with nearly 70 MW of renewable energy. Former Avon, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire all added less than 0.1, but Former Avon has three large wind projects recently approved by councillors, totaling 25 MW.