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The Infrastructure Planning Commission has been set up by the Westminster government to make the planning process for nationally significant infrastructure projects "faster, fairer and easier for people to get involved in".

From March the 1st the IPC will be able to receive applications from the energy sector for large-scale projects capable of generating more than 50 megawatts of power in England and Wales.

Six of the first ten projects destined for its in-tray are Welsh. Five of those are wind farms planned for areas already identified by the Welsh Assembly Government as suitable for large arrays of turbines.

One of those sites is Nant y Moch in the Cambrian Mountains of Ceredigion. The size and scale of the development on hundreds of acres of uplands in the shadow of the peak of Pumlumon make it controversial.

But the controversy is heightened by the fact that the land also includes the probable site of the Battle of Hyddgen, a key Welsh victory in the early days of Owain Glyndwr's rebellion of the 1400s.

John Morgan lives in near-by Talybont and has studied what little is known of the engagement, when victory over a numerically superior English army established Owain Glyndwr as a serious force and rallied many more Welshmen to his cause.

"Hyddgen is where Owain Glyndwr he established himself as a real force in Wales. The South Walians suspected him at one time, as a North Walian," he tells the Eye on Wales programme.

"But when he fought this battle of Hyddgen he came out as the saviour of Wales, the real Prince of Wales."

Under the old regime of determining large scale planning applications, Nant y Moch would have been the subject of a planning inquiry with an inspector making a final recommendation to the Department of Energy in Whitehall.

But the Planning Act 2008 has replaced that process - seen by the Westminster government as too expensive and time-consuming - with a new system to be overseen by the Infrastructure Planning Commission.

Planning inquiries will be replaced by a system of promoter-led consultation supplemented with IPC Commissioners also holding open-floor hearings and calling for written representations.

During the process the IPC will also have to take into account a new National Policy Statement on energy.

Currently in draft form, it has been developed in London, raising concerns that the final framework the IPC will operate within won't properly reflect Welsh policies and priorities.

Nant y Moch is within the Ceredigion constituency of Liberal Democrat MP, Mark Williams. He is not a fan of the new system.

"My concern is that we are taking the decision away from elected politicians and putting it in the hands of an unelected quango."

"They will have a floating array of commissioners who they will bring in to service as they see fit. Who's going to be determining that? How are local opinions going to be adequately reflected in that kind of system?"

Despite such concerns, the Infrastructure Planning Commission's chair Sir Michael Pitt believes the new system will be an improvement.

"It's a very much fairer regime. It gives proper opportunities for local residents and objectors to have their say and also to know that their views are being properly taken into account."

"We've made it very clear that we will expect promoters of developments to undertake intensive public consultation exercises."

"We've also made it clear that if we feel that the way in which they have undertaken that exercise is unsatisfactory we will not even accept the application. That means engaging effectively with local people and local authorities."