Our community borrowed millions to build wind turbines – but it’s paid off, big time

It’s an important moment because, like so many areas in rural Scotland, this is a place where there’s nowhere for workers to live – and there’s nowhere for young people to go when they leave home.

So we’re investing in housing. And the thing that has allowed us to do that is wind. In 2017 we built five wind turbines at Garth wind farm, which together generate around 4.5 megawatts of electricity that goes right back into the grid.

Every year, we negotiate with suppliers to get the best price for the electricity we produce, and after we have covered costs the rest we invest right back into the community.

The amount of power we generate is the equivalent to just one of the turbines at the Viking Wind Farm on mainland Shetland, which has 103 turbines and is run by Viking and SSE Renewables. But the amount of difference we’ve made in terms of community benefit and investment here is incomparable.

If we hadn’t had an active and determined volunteer community on Yell this would never have happened. They borrowed £8.3m to build it – that was a huge risk for the community to take, but it’s paid off big time.

We need to take in around £1m to cover our costs and anything on top of that we invest back in the community. At the moment we are investing in housing, and before now we have extended our industrial estate, built a big marina, purchased the local shop and bought two business units which we are turning into a community hub.

In addition, we operate a number of social projects, including a free community lunch club, which is attended by 60-70 people weekly, a local youth club and shopping and prescription deliveries. We have also just purchased a vehicle for community use, and operate a community grant scheme, distributing funds to other organisations and individuals.

We now have what we’ve been told is the largest community-owned industrial estate in Europe, and it’s occupied by local businesses over 14 sites.

We’ve a 28-berth marina – with 23 permanently let berths and 5 for visiting vessels. This services business and recreation users, as well as the tourist industry that’s built up in Cullivoe – and we are going to build a caravan park.

Unlike some other windfarm developments, there was never any objection to Garth, and that’s because all profits are going back to the community. Now, there are a number of potential projects trying to replicate what we have done but they can’t get a look-in, because there’s no space for them to connect to the local grid. We can’t expand, either, for the same reason.

Our story was told in a report released by Platform on the Social Value of Renewables in the Highlands and Islands. There are other projects, like Tilley, Tiree’s community wind turbine, which returns over 100 times more economic value to the community than the privately-owned Beinn An Tuirc 1-2 Wind Farm, despite being around 1 per cent of the size.

Projects like ours should be at the top of the list. We have shown what can be done with a fraction of the power that Viking produces – if big developers left a small amount of grid connection aside for others to do what we have done, the benefits would be massive.

Where big windfarms are being developed, the community should receive a percentage of their gross income in the same way as they pay the landowners.

Community benefit should not be calculated based on a £/installed megawatt basis. This is not fair, and current Scottish Government guidance relating to this should be both revised and enshrined in legislation.

Communities should also have a right to buy a share in the renewables project should they wish to do so. And – crucially – there should be access to the grid for people like us who want to make the most of the clean power that Scotland has to offer.

We know how much money can be made. And if communities really want to benefit from renewables they need a real and lasting stake.

Alice Mathewson, Development Manager North Yell Development Council