Community Benefit Fund

A Community Benefit Fund is proposed with the intention of recognising the contribution communities make when they host a wind farm in their locality. Not every part of the country is suitable to locate a wind farm. Those areas that are suitable, should benefit from doing so, and the Community Benefit Fund is the mechanism by which the local community benefits.

Renewable energy projects such as the proposed Carrow Wind Farm will have a significant community benefit fund associated with them for wind energy and this contribution is currently set at €2 per megawatt hour (€2/MWhr). For the Carrow Wind Farm, this could amount to approximately €500,000 per annum, depending on the final number of turbines proposed.

Carrow Renewable Energy Limited is committed to working with the local community and strongly believes in playing a part in contributing to the social, environmental, and economic wellbeing of the communities surrounding the proposed wind farm project.

All citizens living in the vicinity of the project are invited to give feedback on how the fund could be spent to the betterment of their community. Once the fund is open for applications further information will be available on the project website. In the meantime, we invite feedback via the community survey on the project website.

Should the proposed development be permitted, it would result in a financial benefit for the local community. The value of this fund would be directly proportional to the electricity generated by the wind farm. The following terms and conditions would apply:

Direct payments – Direct payment would be made to those living closest to the wind farm, which gradually decrease with distance from the wind farm. The amount paid to each household would depend on the number of houses within varying distances from the wind farm, and the total amount from the Community Benefit Fund allocated to direct payment.

Support for local groups – Local groups, clubs and not-for-profit and community organisations would be able to apply for funding to ensure that people in the wider community (who may not receive direct payments) also get to benefit in some way from the proposed wind farm, through the funding supports that would be made available to benefit local community groups and projects.