…but doesn’t go anywhere near far enough!
Yesterday RenewableUK (formerly the British Wind Energy Association) announced a new protocol for wind energy developers to pay local communities an annual sum of £1,000 per megawatt of capacity installed. This means, for example, a developer who installs a 1 or 2MW turbine grossing over £500,000 annually, could expect to pay just 0.2% to the local community.
We think the amounts should be much more generous and our schemes aim to offer in excess of 5% of gross annual production income. For example, a typical mid-size wind turbine in good wind resource and benefiting from the Feed In Tariff (FIT) could result in annual community payments of over £5,000.
And there’s more…
We want the local community to invest directly in our schemes – typically we will reserve 49% of each scheme for investment by local residents, for up to 18 months after the turbine has been fully commissioned. This allows time for the publication of the first full year of production data so that investors can see what the actual returns will be.
If you own suitable land that your local community might be able to benefit from with a mid-sized wind turbine why not get in contact with us? We offer free initial resource studies and for suitable sites we develop the scheme at our cost – as the land owner you take no financial risk at all.