Renewable trade association RenewableUK has published today the details of the industry’s Protocol on payments from wind farms to community benefit funds.
The Protocol specifies a £1,000 minimum payment per year per megawatt of installed wind power during the lifetime of the wind farm.
The decision on how the funds will be allocated will rest with the community living in the vicinity of the wind farm. There are a number of community benefit funds already set up around wind farms in the UK, but now the industry has formalised the approach to community benefits with the backing of RenewableUK’s members and Board of Directors.
However, the new proposals have been described as inadequate by campaign group, the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF).
It explains that an average turbine, of 2.3 MW receives income of about £500,000 a year, half of which (around £250,000) is subsidy in the form of the Renewables Obligation drawn from consumer bills.
So, for a typical turbine described above, the community benefit of £2,300 a year will be paid out from an income of about £500,000, or roughly 0.5%.
REF believes that other more generous and less divisive forms of community reparation would be preferable, including direct compensation to affected neighbours, and reduced council tax to reflect lost amenity.
Dr John Constable, REF's director of Policy and Research, said: "The proposed community benefit is just half of one percent of the large subsidy enhanced income derived from our electricity bills; the wind farm industry is taking our money with one hand and expecting us to be grateful for the small change offered with the other. Many will perceive community benefit of this kind and scale as adding insult to injury, and the plan seems unlikely to be persuasive."
Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of RenewableUK said: “The wind industry has voluntarily and with the full backing of key stakeholders and Government, adopted a Protocol setting out what cash benefits should accrue to communities living near onshore wind farms.
“There are a number of ways communities across the UK benefit economically from onshore wind, both in terms of business and employment, but community benefits have a special role to play, as they are distributed according to the wishes of the local community itself.”
In addition to the current proposals the Government has also supported RenewableUK’s initiative to allow host communities to retain the business rates paid by onshore wind farms in England. This would mean that the local council will keep business rates paid by the wind farm operator, in addition to the community living near the wind farm receiving community benefit funding.
“Our ongoing study of the economic benefits of onshore wind clearly indicates that the local and regional economy gains over £1 million per MW during the development and operational cycle of a wind farm.
“We also know that our unparalleled wind resource is the best in Europe and already supplies over 10% of electricity in Scotland and more than 4% in the UK as a whole. The Protocol, in line with Government proposals, clearly sets out what every wind farm in the UK could bring to the local community’s table”, concluded McCaffery.
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