David Ross
While The Highland Line was taking an ill-deserved holiday break there have
been several announcements important to the blog’s bailiwick
Not least amongst them comes from South Uist, to the effect that the
three-turbine Loch Carnan Community Wind farm, which began generating in
March 2013, has earned over £2m gross income to the end of April 2014.
So very belated congratulations to St ras Uibhist, the community-led body
which since the buyout in 2007 owns and manages 93,000 acres of land
covering almost the whole of the islands of Benbecula, Eriskay and South
Uist, as well as a number of other small islands.
Community buyouts all look to establish a reliable income stream to finance
their stewardship of local land. Gigha, for example, has had three turbines
which have done that for years…the Three Dancing Ladies, Faith, Hope and
Charity which were joined in December by a fourth christened Harmony. St
ras Uibhist now has its reliable wage earner in Loch Carnan. During the
last 12 months Loch Carnan generated slightly more than expected from the
financial projections. This was despite initial teething problems with the
turbines and the delay in installation of SSE equipment that resulted in a
reduction in the allowable generation by the turbines until July last year.
But as a result of the earnings, the first two loan and interest payments
were made to the troubled Co-op Bank on time in October 2013 and April 2014
(if all its investments were as sound the bank might be in better shape
today), and a loan repayment has also been made to Social Investment
Scotland, paving the way for the release of £712,000 of funds to the
community in the middle of May.
The initial funds released from the wind farm will be partly allocated to
reducing overdraft and loans. Funds will also be allocated to maintenance
and repair of the drainage system and floodgates, and land and estate
infrastructure repairs. So the St ras Uibhist development team is now
actively working towards carrying out vital work at the Loch Bee floodgate,
Smerclate outlet, and the Ardmore outlet this summer.
Revenue from the three turbines over the next 20 years is projected to see
in excess of £20m being pumped into the local economy to regenerate one of
the most economically fragile areas of the UK.
It is difficult not to see this as another justification of the community
landownership model as an important tool in ensuring social and economic
progress in these parts which can still struggle to keep their people after
nearly half a century of work by the Highlands and Island Development Board
and then Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
But the model even yet has its critics, who still wrongly talk of subsidy
dependence, never empowerment and enterprise.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to recall the announcement that the funding
for Loch Carnan was secured in 2012: a grant of £1m and loan funding from
Social Investment Scotland, £2.4m from the European Regional Development
Fund and £8m of finance from the Co-op Bank.
At that time it was being hailed as the largest wholly community owned wind
farm in the UK. But at exactly the same time another development was
claiming the very same title.
This was the plan for a 450-acre wind farm not on community-owned land but
on a site owned by Derbyshire’s Chatsworth Estate, which has been home to
the Dukes of Devonshire for centuries, with Chatsworth House the last word
in opulence.
Roseland Community Energy Trust submitted proposals to construct six wind
turbines on grain fields near the village of Scarcliffe. But last year
Bolsover District Council rejected the plans because “it would have a
significant detrimental impact on the local heritage”. There was particular
concern particular about the impact on the landscape of the limestone
region of the Peak District.
The trust had hoped the wind farm would make £750,000 profit per year,
which would be put back into the community to support new businesses, fund
university places for local children and retrain unemployed people in the
area. But the councillors believed the impact on natural heritage assets
outweighed the financial benefits that were offered.
Others have erected or planned what they claim as the largest wholly
community owned wind farm in the land, such Westmill Wind Farm Cooperative,
which opened in May 2008 in the Oxfordshire village of Watchfield with five
1.3 megawatt turbines.
But it is never clear whether ‘largest’ refers to number or size of the
turbines, their combined generating capacity, the area they cover, the
number of people in the community which owns them, etc.
It matters little. What’s important is that Loch Carnan’s turbines are now
working well for near 3000 Hebrideans.
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