Mr. Tim Cowhig:

When we started the process, this was a concept and an idea. When we brought it up at the beginning, people would have said that it would never happen, that we were mad or whatever. When we started this project back in 2011, we first had to socialise the idea and say that this was something that can happen, and explain to people the concept of building a cluster of wind farms and exporting the power to the UK. It took us a full 12 months just to get people to sit down and accept that this was something that could happen. As part of that, we had to look for a land mass where people were willing to participate in the project. It would be very difficult to go before a community with a blank sheet and say that this is a concept; it has to be built up in steps and made happen.

We have met over 100 local communities in the midlands for discussions. They put forward various ideas and told us what they would like to happen. This is part of the overall process, so that we can sit down and see how best to put together an overall policy.