South of Scotland Enterprise have launched a public consultation on proposals to create a South of Scotland Standard for Community Benefits from onshore wind.

The draft South of Scotland Standard includes nine key principles:

• High-quality community engagement from first point of contact
• A standardised minimum payment of £5000 per installed MW per year (index-linked)
• Transparency and accountability
• Local flexibility in how funds are used
• Investing in community capacity
• Contractual security for agreements
• Tackling barriers to shared ownership
• Retrospectivity for older agreements
• A voluntary charter mark for developers

PCC comment

PCC recently supported the Scottish Coalition on Community Energy call for higher community benefits from clean energy

"For onshore wind, they suggest £7.3k per Megawatt per year, plus additional payments to bring the total to at least 2.5% of the developer’s revenue from the project."

Read more and have your say

Article feedback secretary@ccrbpeebles.co.uk