RES has announced today that it is in discussions with Energy4All, the UKs leading expert in community-owned renewable energy schemes, about the opportunities for local people to buy shares in its Den Brook Wind Farm once it is built and operating.
The 18MW Den Brook wind farm proposed for North Tawton in Devon is currently being examined at public inquiry and it is hoped that, once consented, construction will begin next year. Throughout the development process, RES has been exploring ways in which the local community can benefit directly from the wind farm once it is operating and has so far proposed a number of initiatives:
- An annual community fund for the lifetime of the project, to be spent by local people on local community projects. It will be in the region of 27,000 per annum.
- Significant improvements to the line owned by Dartmoor Railways to create a new commuter link between Exeter and Okehampton
- Employment opportunities during the construction phase, when RES will seek to use local and regional businesses for services such as haulage, civil engineering, electrical works, security, etc.
However, to further increase the opportunities for local residents to receive direct and tangible benefits from the wind farm, RES is considering offering local people the option to buy shares in the wind farm and Energy4All, which is a not-for-profit organisation, would facilitate this.
Rachel Ruffle, Project Manager for Den Brook Wind Farm, said;
Energy 4All has 13 years of experience in setting up and running successful wind farm co-operatives. It is dedicated to helping communities to own a stake in renewable energy schemes. We are very keen to explore how residents local to Den Brook could be offered a stake in the wind farm as a way to reap some direct benefit from the project once it is up and running. Energy4All is the ideal organisation to facilitate this for us and we look forward to exploring this further. We are also interested in hearing how much interest from local people there is in the idea.
John Malone of Energy4All said;
We are excited about the potential for community ownership at Den Brook. We have already helped to establish seven successful wind co-operatives across the country, with many more in development, and are finding that with rising concerns about climate change and the need to tackle this at the local as well as the national level, there is greater public support for renewable energy than ever before. But communities also want direct involvement in the generation of renewable energy in their region. Local share ownership allows people to have a say in the operation of the project and to benefit from the sale of the electricity produced by the turbines. It also maximises the regional economic benefits by keeping investment in the community.
