OREANDA-NEWS. SSE supports the main measures announced by Government today in respect of new onshore wind developments. They will maintain a stable investment framework, provide local communities with the opportunity to engage earlier and more effectively with proposed developments, and deliver a consistently high level of financial benefit to communities that host wind farms.

By the end of the year, Government is expecting the industry to provide community investment funds equivalent to GBP 5,000 per MW for all new onshore wind projects in England. Since January 2012, SSE has had a community investment policy in place across Great Britain that already delivers this level of benefit for all new onshore wind farms. In the last 10 years SSE has provided more than GBP 10million pounds of community benefit through its wind farm funds and supported more than 1,000 community projects. This financial year alone, SSE has set aside over GBP 3.5million for community funds.

SSE already undertakes full pre-application consultation with communities as standard practice for all of its new onshore wind developments, not just those covered by the national infrastructure planning framework, and supports the move to make this compulsory. It will fully consider the detail of new planning guidance as it emerges and seek to implement best practice recommendations.

Director for Onshore Renewables at SSE, Colin Nicol, said: “We are strongly committed to ensuring that communities are proactively consulted when we propose new onshore wind developments and that they should benefit directly. We have a well-established policy for investing in local communities, which we believe has raised the bar in terms of the level of investments that communities can expect.

“Onshore wind farms also bring a wide range of other benefits to local communities that host them, through the creation of jobs, local business opportunities and improvements to local roads and infrastructure.”