King Charles' wind farm ban 'could be overturned by Prince William'

King Charles III could have his long-standing effective ban on building wind farms on the near-530 square kilometres of royal land in England overturned by his son, Prince William, who is reportedly considering allowing major renewable energy developments on the property.

William, the 25th Duke of Cornwall, is said to be considering building wind farms along with solar farms, geothermal facilities and biomass to help the estate reach its goal of becoming net zero by 2032.

William has chaired the Duchy’s board since Charles became king in 2022. The king, who previously held that role, is a long-term renewables advocate, but also has concerns over maintaining the landscapes on estate land, reportedly blocking any attempt to build wind turbines.

“We continue to investigate opportunities for the generation and storage of renewable energy across the estate.”

The spokesperson also provided recent quotes from Alastair Martin, Secretary and Keeper of Records at the Duchy of Cornwall, who said that King Charles is “passionate about renewable energy.”

“The issue with the Duchy of Cornwall estate is that it happens to be in some of the most beautiful parts of the southwest of England particularly and there are always aesthetic considerations. And I'm sure those are not going to go away because we've got a new Duke.”

Wind power has proven extremely profitable for the royals through The Crown Estate, the seabed landlord for England and Wales, which charges offshore wind developers lease fees to raise capital.

New wind farms on Duchy of Cornwall land would be another boost to the UK renewables sector, which is riding a renewed wave of optimism under the new Labour government, which has set bold targets of doubling onshore wind, tripling solar and quadrupling offshore wind by 2030, by which time it wants to run a net zero electricity grid.