The Falck Renewables, Orsted and BlueFloat Energy consortium bidding in ScotWind has joined forces with community ownership outfit Energy4All to explore opportunities for Scottish communities to own a stake in offshore wind.
Energy4All has signed an exclusive memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the delivery and execution of a community ownership scheme.
The scheme will kick off by carrying out a public consultation and designing a new framework allowing residents of Scotland and Scottish communities to share the financial benefits of the floating wind farms the consortium has applied to build.
The consultation will begin in north-east Scotland in October to gather the views of communities on how they can be best served by offshore wind farms in terms of potential investment schemes or community ownership opportunities.
The consultation will build on initial discussions on community engagement in offshore wind at a March 2021 Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy sponsored event organised by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) which resulted in an SCDI report “Harnessing Value for Scotland from Offshore Wind Development”.
Falck Renewables has a 15-year track record of working with Energy4All having successfully set up eight cooperatives at its Scottish onshore wind farms, enabling thousands of people to buy a stake in their local wind farm.
Energy4All now supports more than 30 successful community energy cooperatives in the UK with 17,000 members.
It has raised over £80m from members to invest in wind, solar, hydro and biomass schemes.
Falck Renewables managing director Richard Dibley said: “Our ethos has always been to share the value generated from our onshore wind farms as widely as we can with local communities.
“For us it really makes sense to extend that approach to offshore wind and our MoU with Energy4All is the first step in understanding how involving local communities in owning offshore developments might work.
“Local people own a stake in eight of our Scottish wind farms through cooperatives and the community of Fintry also own a turbine at our Earlsburn Wind Farm which we operate on their behalf.
“These innovative schemes have evolved over time but have ensured that communities across the country have benefitted from onshore wind energy and we are now committed to extending that to offshore wind.”
Energy4All CEO Marna McMillin added: “Energy4All is thrilled to be partnering in this exciting new venture for community owned wind energy in Scotland.
“Following the launch, capital raise and operation of eight community co-operatives with stakes in Falck wind farms, and joint wind projects with other developers, this is an opportunity for us to build on that knowledge and experience to take community ownership to another level.”