James Evans MS has warned that Wales faces “industrialisation by stealth” with 70 onshore wind farm proposals across Wales, with five proposed in Brecon & Radnorshire.

The list, compiled by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), includes major schemes at Aberedw, Nant Mithil (Radnor Forest), Bryn Gilwern, Garreg Fawr (Sennybridge/Pontfaen), and Banc y Celyn (Erwood/Upper Chapel), totalling more than 100 turbines locally, each more than 200 metres tall.

In an exchange between James Evans and Eluned Morgan MS, the First Minister compared Powys’s potential contribution to net zero targets to South Wales’s historic coal mining industry.

The First Minister said: “15,000 jobs are going to be created as a result of renewable energy.

“That is not something I'm going to apologise for. It is something I'm going to triumph.

“It is something that I'm going to be proud of. I'm going to make sure that people in Powys have opportunities to get involved in developing those wind farms, that they have green skills available to them.

“In future, the people of Powys will need to make a contribution, as the people of the valleys did for over a century when the coal was there.”

Evans described those comments as “deeply out of touch”, saying they “show how little understanding Ministers have of the pressures already faced by rural communities.”

James Evans MS said: “I’m not against renewable energy, but what’s happening here isn’t about local, small-scale energy for communities. It’s about turning vast areas of Mid Wales into industrial zones for corporate profit. These 200-metre turbines will scar our hills, threaten wildlife, and devastate tourism.

“To suggest that Powys should ‘do its bit’ is offensive and historically ignorant. Mid Wales has already made its contribution ... and continues to power, feed, and support the nation.

“The Welsh Government talks about a ‘transition’, but there’s nothing small about imposing industrial-scale wind farms on rural Wales. Our countryside isn’t empty space, it’s our home, and it deserves respect.”