Benbrack Wind Farm Announces £10m Sustainable Community Fund

Red Rock has announced a new £10m* Sustainable Community Fund for its Benbrack wind farm in Dumfries & Galloway as it nears completion later this year. After engaging and consulting with local communities in recent years, the developer has reached agreements with three community organisations who will administer the Fund in their respective areas and maximise the benefit to their communities.

These organisations are Carsphairn Renewables Energy Fund Limited (CREFL) and Glenkens District Trust (GDT) both in Dumfries & Galloway, and the 9CC in East Ayrshire. This approach will see the Fund entrusted to existing organisations which lie at the heart of the community and furthermore allow this investment to reach a wide geographical area, benefitting an approximate population of 34,000 across a total of 19 community councils.

Red Rock hopes the Fund will make a tangible difference to local people’s lives and help tackle key issues such as over the short, medium and long term:

• Addressing the specific needs and challenges that come with living in a rural environment, such as attracting and retaining a younger population

• Helping local communities reduce their carbon footprint

• Facilitating opportunities to support green tourism

  
  

Robbie Williamson, Benbrack Project Manager, said:

“The Benbrack Sustainable Community Fund is a key example of the wider benefit wind farms can bring to the local area. We have spent the last few years getting to know the local community and gain a better understanding of the specific challenges that come with living in a rural area.  We hope this funding will help to tackle some of these key issues, make a positive, lasting impact and maximise benefit for local people.

“CREFL, GDT and 9CC each understand their communities’ needs and ambitions, and are best placed to make decisions on how this Fund is invested. We look forward to working with their teams and see our vision for the Fund be realised over the coming decades.”

Rory Clark Kennedy, Treasurer of Carsphairn Renewable Energy Fund Limited, said: “The CREFL board and Carsphairn community are pleased and excited to reach an agreement for Benbrack’s community benefit funding.  We are extremely grateful to the Red Rock team for making this happen so smoothly and as the host community, look forward to working with the team over the lifetime of the windfarm.  We have an exciting pipeline of projects that require funding and will be pleased to see the developments that will be made possible by this investment”.

Fiona Smith, Chair of Glenkens & District Trust, said:

“We are delighted, as a local funder, to enter into this arrangement with Red Rock and to be able to consolidate these additional monies into the Glenkens & District Fund. We are passionate about keeping the community at the heart of decisions on how these funds are used and welcome the trust shown in us.

“The purpose of the Glenkens & District Fund is to support our communities to be connected, resilient and carbon-neutral places where people choose to live, to work and visit, to bring up their families and to grow old. Community groups and organisations across our ten community council areas work extremely hard to achieve this goal and these additional monies will enable them to achieve more.”

Rae Smith, Vice Chair of the 9CC Group, said:

“We are now seeing the benefits of nine community councils from the Cumnock & Doon Valley area working together. Community benefit from the wind farms that are being – and will be built – in the area, has the potential to help transform all of our nine former coalfield local communities.

“We look forward to delivering tangible benefits to our communities as a result of signing this inaugural Community Benefit Agreement with Benbrack Wind Farm, as well as with other developers. Local communities will be able to identify their project priorities, and work together to develop projects which will benefit more than one community council area”.

The Fund will distribute annual payments of around £110,000** to each of the three local organisations starting on the first anniversary of the wind farm’s Commercial Operations Date (COD), which Red Rock hopes to reach later this Summer.

£10m total fund is based on industry best practice of £5,000 per MW and a projected wind farm lifetime of 30 years. *Index linked.