SSE establishes new £90 million onshore wind community investment plan

30 Nov 2011

SSE has today announced details of a new Scotland Sustainable Energy fund that could be worth more than £90 million over 25 years if it is able to realise its ambitions for new onshore wind farms in Scotland. The fund will be available for organisations promoting skills development, community energy schemes and improving the built and natural environment. The fund is in addition to the £150 million SSE has already committed to support community projects in Scotland over the 25-year projected lifetime of the company’s existing and planned wind farms.

SSE’s current policy for awarding community funds is based on the installed capacity of its onshore wind farms under construction or in operation and is worth up to £2,500 per annum for each megawatt of generation capacity.

The commitment announced today will increase the value of SSE’s investment to the equivalent of £5,000 per megawatt for all new onshore wind farms constructed in Scotland from 1 January 2012. This will comprise £2,500 for local community initiatives and £2,500 per megawatt for the new Scotland Sustainable Energy fund.

SSE’s 76MW Strathy North Wind Farm, which was recently consented by Scottish Ministers, will be the first wind farm to benefit from the additional funding, providing a total lifetime fund value of £9.5 million. SSE intends that half of this will be ring-fenced for the community hosting the wind farm and the remainder used to support community projects across the Highland region.

Announcing the new fund, SSE Chief Executive Ian Marchant said: “SSE’s wind farms are already bringing a range of community benefits in addition to generating clean, renewable energy. These include increased job opportunities and improvements to the built and natural environment. In addition we have, for a number of years, established local funds as our way of saying thank you to the communities that host our wind farms.

“The time has come where we want to do even more to ensure more specific benefits from our renewable energy programme are delivered to the people and economy of Scotland.

“We want to commit additional funds worth £90 million to provide long-term support for strategic projects in the regions in which we are investing and in the areas of most need, and which we believe have the potential to make a significant and sustainable difference to the people of Scotland. These are: skills development – focussing on training people, and job creation and retention; community energy schemes –unlocking the potential for communities to develop their own renewable energy schemes; and projects to improve the built and natural environment.

“We’re also committed to continuing to set aside sizeable sums for communities local to our wind farms, for existing and new sites. It is for these communities to decide what’s important to them and to support projects which are best for their area. It might be job creation, keeping the local shop open or improving community transport. Communities have been benefiting from SSE’s community investment since we launched our first fund in 2002, and many more will be eligible to apply for funding as new wind farms come on stream. If our planned wind farms get the go-ahead, during their lifetime we expect to invest a total of over £240 million in local and regional community projects.”

Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing said: “The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that communities receive the maximum possible benefits from renewable energy developments in their areas. Our ambition is for all Scottish communities to share in the rich rewards of our next energy revolution.

"For that reason,  I welcome today's announcement by SSE which will see more communities in Scotland benefiting from renewable energy, improving their built and natural environment, starting energy projects of their own, and developing the skills they need to get jobs in this thriving sector."

Ian Marchant concluded: “We will be talking to stakeholders in order to maximise the potential benefit of the various funding streams, particularly in the area of skills. I hope we’ll be able to develop innovative proposals to help us realise our vision of more jobs, more community-owned renewable energy projects and improvements to the environments where we all live and work.”