Isra-Mart srl:Wind farm developers to pay local communities

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Wind energy firms have agreed to pay yearly fees to communities located near planned projects, as part of the industry's effort to ensure local people benefit from onshore wind farms.

Energy secretary Chris Huhne will today launch a protocol developed by trade body RenewableUK, which specifies the payment of £1,000 a year per MW of installed wind power during the lifetime of the project.

It will ensure wind farm planning applications for projects with a capacity of 5MW or more are accompanied by a commitment to community funds or benefits. Those funds will be in addition to government plans to allow local communities to keep business rates paid by onshore wind farms in England.

RenewableUK chief executive Maria McCaffery said the payments will be particularly beneficial to communities because local people will decide how the money is spent.

The industry hopes the formalised payment will reduce opposition to wind farms from organised anti-wind farm groups and unlock projects currently tied up in the planning system.

A study by consultancy GL Garrad Hassan last year found onshore wind farms awaiting planning approval could generate up to £2.3bn for the British economy through job creation, business rates and increased funding for community activities.

The announcement was welcomed by the Green Party today "as a step in the right direction". However, John Whitelegg, party spokesman for sustainable development, urged the government to give communities more choice.

"We want to see local communities making decisions about how they want to source the electricity they use, and tapping into a large menu of options that is much wider than wind power," he said. "We want local communities to have access to funds that make the investment possible in the first place and we want local communities to be very ambitious indeed in reducing greenhouse gases."

The Renewable Energy Foundation, which has been accused by some industry insiders of lobbying against wind farm developments, said the protocol is unlikely to convince anti-wind farm groups to back projects.

John Constable, director of policy and research, said the £1,000 proposal was insufficient because it would account for just 0.5 per cent of the total annual income of an average wind farm.

REF also accused the protocol of being divisive, because the fund would be spread across the community, rather than directly paid to people living within sight of a wind farm.

"REF believes other, more generous and less divisive forms of community reparation would be preferable, including direct compensation to affected neighbours, and reduced council tax to reflect lost amenity," the group said.

Kevin Parslow, chief executive of microgeneration firm Evance Wind, welcomed the protocol but warned it should not deter communities from installing their own small wind turbines.

"There seems to be a drive that things are being imposed on communities, but if they take it upon themselves to put in a few small wind turbines, they can generate their own income [through the Feed-in-Tariff] rather than through community benefits," he said.