The tide is turning against putting up pylons to connect new energy sources to the National Grid.
That's the view of Plaid Cymru candidates in Denbighshire reacting to shock news that Scottish Power has pulled out of a planned windfarm development at Mynydd Mynyllod near Corwen.
The company said in a statement last night: "A key issue has been landscape and visual effects, and particularly those associated with any potential grid connection options."
Marc Jones, Plaid Cymru parliamentary candidate for Clwyd West and a campaigner to place the grid connection from the Clocaenog windfarms to Cefn Meiriadog underground, said: "This decision by Scottish Power is potentially very significant. The company has accepted that new pylons to link these wind turbines to the grid are not acceptable to local communities.
"There is a growing consensus across Wales - whether along the Menai Straits, Montgomery, Carmarthenshire or Denbighshire - that some of our most beautiful countryside should not be ruined by pylons.
"In Llannefydd, Henllan and surrounding areas there has been a huge campaign to resist the pylons. This news from Scottish Power gives me and other campaigners in the area hope that they may yet see sense and agree for the planned link up to Cefn Meiriadog to go underground.
"Of course there is an added one-off expense to the company but these are huge multinationals that are benefitting from energy in Wales without giving anything back to our communities. Scottish Power and others make huge profits that should be invested in underground infrastructure not just shareholder dividends."
Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid's parliamentary candidate for Clwyd South, said: "Renewable energy is the way forward. However it's essential that there is a community buy-in, such as the Corwen community cooperative hydro scheme.
"By contrast the proposal for Mynydd Mynyllod was being imposed on the community by a large multinational with little clear community benefit. Community-owned renewable schemes that have local backing are the way forward otherwise they will not win local support and this is perhaps what Scottish Power has realised by withdrawing from this scheme."
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