Scotland’s wind industry should follow its Danish and German counterparts by developing more community-owned projects, say industry experts, notwithstanding the current UK Government’s decision to reduce onshore subsidies.
However, the pattern of land ownership and post-war nationalisation of the country’s power networks means Scotland is unlikely to emulate the success of Europe’s wind heartland – Denmark and Germany – anytime soon, says Renewable UK’s director of policy Dr Gordon Edge.
However a focus on developing more community-owned projects and continued financial contributions to local communities will help drive the industry forward, he says.
In November, Scottish Renewables published a protocol for new windfarm projects asking developers to pay local communities an annual contribution of £5,000 for every megawatt produced over 5MW.
The protocol was attacked by national campaign group Scotland Against Spin that claimed the proposed financial contribution was “meaningless” because there would be no sanctions in place to ensure developers complied with the guidelines.
However, Edge says £5,000 per MW produced is a significant contribution, representing on average 2% of the gross revenue of an onshore windfarm.
And SR’s senior policy manager Joss Blamire is keen to stress it is in the interests of developers to follow the protocol.
Within this framework, developers are advised to sign up to the Scottish Government’s Register of Community Benefits from Renewables, meaning it will be self-policed because developers won’t want to be seen paying no financial contribution to communities, he explains.
Both policy advisers say planning challenges and the anti-wind lobby are here to stay regardless of whether or not communities are paid money for local projects – according to the government register more than £5million is pumped into Scottish communities every year from windfarm projects, yet opposition still exists.
“It’s really important to know it is a voluntary payment by developers,” says Blamire.
“It has nothing to do with the planning process; a windfarm project has to be judged on its own merits.”
He says community ownership, which is very widespread in Germany, will become more common in Scotland as the government strives to meet its target of having 500MW of renewables energy capacity in community ownership by 2020.
Robert Gordon University law lecturer, William Craig, says any future guidelines and legislation relating to wind power and local community benefit should follow the Danish model.
“Danish neighbours can teach us about the need for genuine consultation with communities when developing infrastructure; what does a specific community want? How can we bring them along with the project?” he says.
In Denmark, local communities have the right to buy shares in developments, and development companies, which take place adjacent to their properties, he points out.
This is overseen by an independent statutory review body – made up of lawyers and surveyors – which assesses compensation for properties which have had their value adversely affected by wind developments.
“Benefit and compensation are not always the same thing to communities. It is important that the whole community sees benefit, not just a few who happen to own land,” adds Craig.
“Ownership of the local generating grid is something that should be considered when scoping new power generation projects.”
Scottish Renewables figures suggest that 4,279MW of onshore wind capacity was on the ground in Scotland as of June 30 last year, with 3,914MW in planning, 3,065MW awaiting construction and 776MW in the construction phase.
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