GLENKENS Renewables Initiative group met with Scottish and Southern Energy last week to discuss plans to set up a co-operative with a community stake in the Blackcraig wind farm site - if it is given the green light.
The stake could be anything from a third to an entire windmill’s output. Scottish and Southern Energy would be asked to assist with start up costs, access to renewable technologies and technical advice, and the co-operative would be free to make investments in other renewable projects and hold a share of the wind farm and its output.
The decision on Blackcraig now lies in the hands of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s planning department, who will make a recommendation. If the application is approved, the Glenkens Renewables Initiative, as they are presently calling themselves, will start taking steps towards formally setting up a co-operative.
Roland Chaplain said on behalf of the group: “The amount of ownership will depend on how much can be raised and the timescale.
“If it looks likely to go ahead, we will move fast to register the co-operative and to become an Industrial Provident Society.”
The group would be descended from the very first model co-operative in the country, which was set up just three weeks ago for the Westmill wind farm site in Oxfordshire. That site is smaller than what is planned for Blackcraig.
Mr Chaplain said: “The development at Westmill is the framework the initiative are looking at on the recommendation of Energy 4 All.”
As the Westmill site is in England, the Initiative have also had discussions on the legal implications of using the framework for a Scottish co-operative.
Energy 4 All are a not for profit group established in 2002 to help local and community based co-operatives with project management and administration.
The Initiative would appoint a board of directors made up of local members and each member would have one vote, regardless of investment.
Their goal would be to have a sufficient number of local investors to ensure a significant majority in the Stewartry - but others could be made up of ‘ethical investors’ from anywhere. The investment could start from a nominal amount, from just a few pounds, which would allow a say but not a profit share, right up to a large sum which would offer the opportunity for profit.
The Initiative also hope to look at a wider remit, such as renewables devices and components and perhaps a woodchip plant as dry wood is a plentiful natural resource.
According to Mr Chaplain, not all members of the group are ‘pro-windfarm.’
He said: “Some members are openly unhappy about large windmills, but believe that nuclear power is so much worse and that putting up large turbines is the price to be paid.”
A spokesman for Scottish and Southern Energy said: “SSE has been pleased to meet with representatives from the local area to explore the detail of a community stake in the wind farm. Following a review of wind farm co-operatives which have set-up elsewhere in the UK we believe a mechanism could be developed for the Blackcraig proposal and are therefore happy to look into the relevant legal and financial details.
“Any community stake option would form part of the wider benefits package we would like to offer the area which would include financial support for
local groups and charities, support for small-scale renewable technologies, and a programme of energy efficiency work which would help eliminate fuel poverty around Blackcraig.”
