Community wind farm promises local turbines for local people

A co-operative group has this week become the first owners of a community wind farm in the East Midlands, as part of an initiative that the government hopes will be replicated across the country and provide an effective and sustainable new form of financing for cash-strapped wind farm projects.

The 1,100 members of the Fens Co-op have raised £2.6m to buy two 2MW operational turbines in Lincolnshire from developer Fenland Windfarms. Under the scheme, groups and individuals were able to invest as little as £250 to buy a stake in the development.

"We have had enormous support for this project and are proud that there are now community-owned wind turbines in the area," said Paul Rea, chairman of the Fens Co-op. "There is a high demand for community ownership and whenever people are given the opportunity to have a financial stake in a wind farm, the uptake is very encouraging."

The government has high hopes that community-owned wind farms could make a major contribution to the UK's energy mix, helping to provide project developers with alternative sources of finance at a time when tight credit conditions are leading to the cancellation of some projects and ensuring that local communities are fully engaged in efforts to cut carbon emissions.

The government's recent Climate Change Committee report on moving to a low carbon economy concluded that "direct engagement with citizens such as community actions are important to promote changes in attitudes".

Recent proposals to introduce feed-in tariffs that would allow smaller scale renewables projects to receive above market rates for the energy they feed to the grid would also mean that communities investing in such projects could enjoy significant financial returns.

The first community-owned turbine in Dulas Valley, Wales is estimated to have brought more than £50,000 into the local economy, and resulted in a second turbine being erected in 2007.

The UK's largest community-owned wind farm, known as Westmill Wind Farm Cooperative, opened last year in Oxfordshire and boasts five 1.3MW turbines. Shares in the project are expected to deliver a return of approximately five per cent over the first five years of the project, rising to an average of 12 per cent over the 25-year life of the development.