Renewables for all

New community owned wind farm for Aberdeenshire

The seven turbine project at Boyndie airfield is the first scheme in the portfolio to obtain a green light and was approved in January 2004 by Aberdeenshire Council's Banff and Buchan Area Committee. Work on the Boyndie wind farm started in June 2005 and represents an investment of £10-15 million. The 2 MW Ennercon turbines will generate enough clean, green energy to supply around 8,500 homes and stand at a height of 100m to tip. Local firm Morrisons are building the wind farm in conjunction with Ennercon.

Boyndie Wind Farm Co-op was established in 2005 to purchase a share of the wind farm. Five local residents have joined the board to organise the launch of the share prospectus in Spring 2006. Profits from the sale of the green electricity produced distributed to members through an annual payment. Preference for joining the scheme is given to people living in the area to maximise the economic benefits to the local communities around the Boyndie development.

While big energy providers are dragging their feet over the development of renewables, localised community projects are showing the way forward. Energy4All is a leading co-operative in the field of community owned renewable energy schemes.

By placing ownership of commercial generators in the hands of local communities, energy co-operatives are ensuring that the benefits and profit of power generation remain within the local community.

This modal has been successfully pioneered in Denmark and has provided communities with both power and shared responsibility for their local environment.

The Danish modal has also successfully shown that where local communities directly benefit there is less resistance to wind turbines. This is in no small part due to the fact that instead of industrial size wind farms scarring the countryside with tightly packed generators, community projects are more responsive to the needs of the local population with turbines placed in mutually acceptable locations.


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