Local authorities and government should do more to encourage community ownership of windfarms, according to Scots farming stalwart Maitland Mackie.
The man behind one of Scotland’s most iconic dairy brands says more needs to be done to encourage community ownership of green energy projects.
“Local communities and councils should be setting up an investment vehicle so that they can own the offshore wind in Aberdeen,” said Mr Mackie at an Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce breakfast today.
“It’s a huge opportunity to get the ownership of energy democratised into the hands of the local people.”
A strong advocate for on-farm renewables – the Mackies dairy and ice cream factory in Westertown, Inverurie is powered by 3.2MW of wind power and 1MW of solar – Mr Mackie has long campaigned for ownership of Scots energy schemes to be in the hands of Scottish companies and people.
“We have to realise with what’s happening onshore is that these major companies [global utility giants] are walking away with £4billion of additional income because they have bough the wind rights, when we could have and should have control of it ourselves,” said Mr Mackie.
Iain Todd from Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group – the body behind the controversial European Offshore Wind Development Centre in Aberdeen bay – said the scale of investment needed for offshore wind means support from major utilities is needed to develop offshore wind projects.
“I agree that if we can get communities to work together to develop projects, it keeps profits at a local level,” said Mr Todd.
“But at the same time for these larger projects people have to have access to that kind of finance so like it or not, we are looking at the major utilities to deliver projects of that scale.”
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