The UK Government should compensate communities that host offshore wind farms and new onshore infrastructure, according to a new report from Policy Exchange.
Crossed Wires says that the government should introduce mandatory Offshore Wind Wealth Funds for all new offshore wind farms.
These funds should pay for upgrades to community facilities, to improve local skills and to provide enhanced local services.
For a typical 1GW offshore wind farm, the fund would pay around £2m per year to local projects for the first 15 years of operation.
The report is written by Ed Birkett, senior research fellow in Policy Exchange’s energy and environment unit.
Government urged to ensure communities are paid for hosting offshore wind farms
Offshore wind farms require infrastructure on land (Owen Humphreys/PA)
Coastal and rural communities should be paid for hosting offshore wind farms to prevent a similar backlash to fracking, the Government has been urged.
Former energy secretaries Dame Andrea Leadsom and Amber Rudd have called for compensation for communities where onshore infrastructure such as underground cables, pylons and substations has to be built to connect offshore turbines to the grid.
They also say they support an offshore wind “ring main” where neighbouring farms in the sea work together to reduce the burden of infrastructure on communities.
Published:
12:00 AM July 8, 2021
A new report has called for communities to be compensated for the impact of the infrastructure needed to support off-shore wind farms
- Credit: JASON HAWKES
A campaigner has described the conclusions of a report on offshore wind farms as a sticking plaster on an open wound .
The report from think-tank Policy Exchange called for compensation for communities where onshore infrastructure such as underground cables, pylons and substations has to be built to connect offshore turbines to the grid.
They also say they support an offshore wind ring main where neighbouring farms in the sea work together to reduce the burden of infrastructure on communities.
Pay communities to host offshore wind farms, Leadsom and Rudd urge UK Government
Former Energy Secretaries Dame Andrea Leadsom and Amber Rudd are warning Ministers that plans to dramatically scale up offshore wind across the UK could incite backlash from local communities.
Image: Orsted
The pair have issued the warning in a new report from Policy Exchange today (8 July), to which they have written the foreword. Entitled ‘Crossed Wires: Avoiding Local Backlash Against Offshore Wind Farms’, the document argues the case for better community engagement from the UK Government as it strives to deliver an ambition for the nation to host 40GW of offshore wind generation capacity by 2030.
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