Crofting townships bid for wind farm subsidy

Four crofting townships campaigning for the right to develop community-owned wind farms in Stornoway are to bid in the Contract for Difference (CFD) auction in May 2019.

Their announcement comes a week after energy minister Claire Perry confirmed when the next round of renewables subsidy applications would open, later than had been anticipated.

The four townships bidding are: Sandwick North Street, Sandwick East Street, Melbost and Branahuie and Aignish. They have all lodged applications with the Crofting Commission for permission to go ahead with developments on their common grazings.

It is believed to be the first time any community organisations will have bid for a subsidy in the CFD scheme.

CFD was set up primarily for multi-nationals to help offset the extra costs of developing new technologies.

The townships will be bidding in the ‘Remote Island Wind’ pot in the CFD auction and will be going head-to-head against bigger schemes planned for the Isle of Lewis. Lewis Wind Power (French multi-national EDF in partnership with Wood Group) will be looking for a subsidy for its Stornoway and Uisenis wind farms, while Forsa Energy will be looking for a subsidy for Tolsta.

Together the four crofting townships hope to develop 21 turbines, with a total output of 105MW. Although that comprises four different schemes, they all meet or exceed the 5MW threshold for eligibility into the CFD scheme. Sandwick North Street representative Rhoda Mackenzie said the four townships were pleased to be on the cusp of applying for planning consent and hopeful all the battling will turn out to have been worthwhile, with a successful bid in May.

‘We’re positive we’ll meet the deadline because we’ve followed all the processes up until now and we’re optimistic because there is existing planning consent for these areas.

‘There shouldn’t be any problem with planning permission being granted so we’re confident we’ll have it all through by the end of this year or the beginning of next year at the very latest.’

If successful at the CFD auction, Mrs MacKenzie stressed all the profits would go into a community benefit fund for distribution throughout the Western Isles.

‘We want to spread this, to invest in the economy of the Western Isles from the Butt to Barra.

‘The profit won’t be kept by the four townships,’ she added.