The local and community ownership at Allt Dearg and Sròndoire windfarms was made possible by the UK-backed Renewable Obligation, a support regime for renewable energy that provides a degree of certainty around future revenue and allowed us to fund the projects through affordable non-recourse debt funding. Whilst uncertainty remains around the future level of government support for commercial scale on-shore wind development, what is clear is that local and community ownership will now struggle to secure debt funding and survive as a commercial model - leaving new energy generation to revert to the exclusive domain of the large, vertically integrated, utilities.
Sròndoire Community Wind Farm will enter service and secure Renewable Obligation accreditation this autumn, well ahead of the RO coming to an end next April.
Sròndoire, like Allt Dearg, is locally owned, with community shares held by Tarbert & Skipness to the south, and Kilfinan to the east.