Grapevine

UK campaigners in green energy standoff reject 'nimby' label

With its medieval church and picturesque village green, the tranquil hamlet of Friston in eastern England should be an unlikely place for a showdown with the UK government and an energy giant.

But Friston, population 341, is on the frontline of a bitter green energy battle between locals in the rural county of Suffolk and those who want to locate a vast energy hub there.

If the plans by National Grid—backed by both the new Labour government and its Conservative predecessor—go ahead, it will see the area transformed by steel and concrete for onshore substations.

Undersea cables from offshore windfarms would make landfall somewhere on the nearby coastline before being sent a few kilometers inland via huge "cable trenches", requiring years of disruptive construction work.

The government wants to decarbonize electricity supply by 2030. The Suffolk campaigners back that transition to renewables.