Energy minister Charles Hendry recently highlighted the four main challenges to energy security in the UK: falling domestic production, increase in prcie of fossil fuels, power stati...

Energy minister Charles Hendry recently highlighted the four main challenges to energy security in the UK: falling domestic production, increase in prcie of fossil fuels, power station closures and decarbonisation of energy production. These challenges should act as a spur to further small scale onshore wind turbine installations. However, the debate over these turbines too often surrounds the financial aspects/drivers rather than the energy security issues. Where appropriate, small onshore wind turbines offer some independence from the grid and take a burden off it. These are important considerations given that bids to reduce energy usage will struggle in the immediate future if consumers do not embrace the ideology of energy reduction and that of renewable supply.

Do the considerations of energy independence enter the discussion over granting planning permission for these turbines?

There is growing interest in the UK in investing in renewable sources of electricity, but not
everyone has a suitable location to install renewable energy equipment, or sufficient money
to pay for an entire system. Joint community ownership is possible, but significant legal,
financial and technical issues need to be dealt with for this to happen.
I am interested in hearing more of any wind power projects that either have been successful or are
planned

Look at Awel Aman Tawe community wind farm in Wales or Baywind in Cumbria. Also a useful paper by Leaney et al "Empowering the Community" on the ins and outs of community projects.

There is a place for small scale on shore wind farms but there must be community involvement a local village in East Yorkshire has had a small wind farm built on the on hills above the village and had a new village hall and other items the community wanted as section 106 within the planning.
This could be look upon as some form of bribery but if it is what the village needs then it is up to them to agree to the wind farm.
I personally believe the way forward is for off shore wind farms and even then we need the security back up of a range of other power supplies as wind is only efficient for approximately 60% of the time.

One of the principal barriers to community ownership of renewables is the lengthy and
expensive process of pre-planning development. To address this, in 2010 we
launched Energy Prospects, a new type of co-operative whose sole purpose is to support
this stage in development. Members of this co-operative get a higher potential return, if this
co-operative succeeds in the long term, to compensate for the considerably higher risks.

Owning a small share in large facilities (Boyndie, Skye, Great Glen and Kilbraur
Co-operatives)

For remote areas where projects tend to be much larger, and populations much smaller,
Energy4All has developed a unique business model, in this case with a commercialdeveloper.
This is based on a revenue-sharing agreement where the co-operative raises capital (around £1.5 million) to purchase a small stake in the project.
Falck deals with the planning, construction and operation of the site, while Energy4All is
responsible for creating, launching and supporting the new community co-operative.

Energy4All has brought behaviour change to the world of investment, by making it possible
for people in the UK to invest in renewable energy generation with as little as £250.
We estimate that an investment of £2,000 in one of its co-operatives enables the
generation of at least as much electricity as an average UK home uses (between 3 and 5
MWh/year).

When we set up a new co-operative, the shares are marketed principally in the
immediate vicinity of the planned wind farm, with limited publicity in the wider area, and
the rest of the UK. This promotes local ownership of renewable energy generation, and also
increases the acceptance of wind farms. Co-operatives donate a proportion of their
earnings to charitable work focused on sustainable energy in the local area, for example
installing insulation in community buildings, or sponsoring educational initiatives in local
schools including site visits.

Energy4All is continuing to increase the rate at which they set up new co-operatives, using
finance from Falks and the Energy Prospects co-operative to allow several projects to be
worked on at once. The Energy Steps website is also up for improvement, which will help
more potential co-operatives reach the point of contacting Energy4All to proceed with a
wind farm. Energy4All is a business run on a not-for-profit basis, with a social mission of enabling
community ownership of renewable energy generation capacity. It was established in 2002
by members of the Baywind co-operative, and currently has 13 employees and a turnover of
around £650,000 (2011/12).