Onshore renewable projects must be rooted in community engagement

Andrew Mott, Exagen’s Head of Planning and Environment shares his views here.

At Exagen, we are keen to share what we know to help make the planning system and electricity network work better for everyone.

So when the Government ran a consultation about how to enable local communities to support onshore wind projects, if they wished to, we offered our expertise from developing solar and battery projects in England. This blog shares some of the points we made.

That process means we learn a lot about the local area and what communities care about. For example, in one recent conversation we learned that local people lacked access to public rights of way near to where our solar farm is due to be built, meaning walkers were forced onto the verges of fast roads, putting their safety at risk and harming their enjoyment. We adapted our layout design to include a new 2km public permissive path, through a diverse range of habitats including woodland and wildflower meadows.

Through the hundreds of conversations we have held, we know that there is huge support for renewable energy projects across the country. But people also tell us they are worried: in our most recent survey over 90% of respondents told us they were concerned about climate change and nearly 70% thought that as a nation, we are not doing enough.

Tackling climate change of course, also means growing our energy independence so we are less reliant on other countries for our energy sources. But to get there we must be sure that new renewable generation works for everyone. We made some specific recommendations to Government:

1. Community benefits: money off energy bills. One of the most frequently asked questions at our public consultation events is whether local communities can receive a reduction on their energy bills. From our experience electricity bill discounts are the most appealing community benefit but further work is needed by the energy retail industry, Ofgem, Government and developers to formalise how this could be implemented equitably.
2. Community benefits: support for local projects. An alternative to energy bill discounts could be a sum offered by the developer on a one-off or annual basis, for benefits such as capital work projects, fibre broadband, electric vehicle charge points or solar panels at community centres. These projects could be managed by the local authority, parish council or a representative community body. Identifying the right project and the right body to oversee it, will need to be planned sensitively and transparently.
3. Resourcing for local authorities. Local authorities and parish councils face huge financial pressures and sometimes lack the resources and skills to engage with new projects in their jurisdictions. Central government must provide clear messaging to show that low carbon energy projects are in the national interest and more funding for stretched parish and local councils must be prioritised.

English onshore wind projects were badly affected by the effective moratorium announced in 2015, but those established before that date continue to provide large sums of community benefit funding. We would support moves proposed last month by MPs and peers to remove the barriers to onshore wind. During England’s wind hiatus, over the border Scotland has shown the benefits of continued onshore wind development and positive results from community benefit funds on a per MW basis.

Andrew Mott is Exagen’s Head of Planning and Environment.
You can read more about Andrew’s experience here

To learn more about Exagen’s community projects, click here.