WIREDGOV

27 per cent increase to 360MW

Community and local ownership of energy has made good progress by increasing 27 per cent in the last year Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing will announce later today. 

Speaking at the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) conference organised by Local Energy Scotland, Mr Ewing welcomed the efforts of everyone involved in community and local ownership of energy. 

The Scottish Government has a target of 500MW in community and local ownership by 2020. 

Speaking ahead of the conference in Stirling Mr Ewing said:

“The Scottish Government is driving forward a community energy empowerment programme to ensure that local communities derive maximum benefits from the local energy resources around them. By creating a system that focuses on local energy, we can help tackle some of our most pressing issues – from security of supply, to increasing costs – and stimulate local economic renewal. 

“The biggest reason for that is a lot of hard work and determination from communities and developers. There are many good examples of this across Scotland like the Point and Sandwick Wind Farm is a fully owned community scheme on the Isle of Lewis – the biggest of its kind in the UK. It is expected to be operational later this year, and will generate money for the local community – estimated around £1 million a year. 

“Stewart Energy demonstrates how local developers and communities can make shared ownership work. The Stewart family were committed to keeping the benefits of renewable energy in their community by offering the community a 25% stake.

“Our target of 500MW in community and local ownership by 2020 is ambitious but we believe that government, developers, banks and local communities all working together can help achieve it.”