Wind farm community gain policy planned for Highland communities
Highland Council has taken an important step towards securing what it said will be the "highest level of benefit possible" for local communities across the Highlands from renewable energy developments.
Members have agreed a policy on how future funds are allocated from the big money schemes such as wind farms that are planned in the region.
Council leader Michael Foxley and Councillor Isobel McCallum, chairwoman of the council’s rural affairs and climate change strategy group, highlighted the proposals at a conference in Inverness organised by the local authority.
Councillor Foxley said: "We are committed to maximising community benefit accruing to all Highland communities from onshore and offshore renewable energy developments.
"We will lobby Scottish and UK Governments so that the aims of the policy can be achieved in a realistic timescale.
"We will spread benefits as widely as we can throughout Highland for the good of all communities. "Communities will be able to apply for funding to their local fund and to the new local area funds and Highland Trust Fund.
"The council will not get any financial benefit. We are driving this policy through entirely so that local communities benefit."
Keynote speaker at the conference was Energy Enterprise and Tourism Minister and Inverness East, Nain and Lochaber MSP Fergus Ewing.
He said: "I want Highland communities to share in the economic and social benefits of Scotland’s onshore and offshore renewables revolution.
"Scotland leads the UK in our support for local ownership of renewables projects and we have set a new target of 500 megawatts of community and locally owned renewables by 2020, which could be worth up to £2.4 billion to communities and rural businesses."
He added: "We provide loan support under our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme and we want to maximise the community benefits of commercial developments.
"Successful events like these give us a greater shared understanding of those new opportunities for the Highlands."
Highland Council’s policy applies to all onshore renewable energy developments. It seeks a minimum payment to community benefit funds equivalent to £5,000 per Megawatt of installed capacity per year. The local authority will seek to negotiate concordats with developers, which will ensure that the firms operate within the council’s policy and that developers negotiate directly with the Council on behalf of communities to secure the greatest level of benefit possible.
The four key factors in negotiations will be proximity to the site, visual impact, construction impact and number of residences.