Repower to the people: The scope for repowering to increase the scale of community shareholding in commercial onshore wind assets in Great Britain

Abstract

Internationally, commercial onshore wind farms are starting to reach the end of their operational or consent life, posing a new and mounting challenge with potentially dramatic permutations for the sector. Replacing existing turbines with new infrastructure through repowering has the potential to significantly increase the installed capacity of existing onshore wind sites without also increasing the footprint of development. However, local community opinions will form an important aspect of such end-of-life decision making. Traditionally, community benefit funds have been used to provide financial payments to host communities, but this is not always what is sought by a local community. The repowering of wind sites presents a distinct moment to reconsider and renegotiate how a local community benefits from hosting wind infrastructure. Herein lies an opportunity for the community to partner with commercial developers to obtain shared ownership of repowering projects, potentially through the support of existing community energy organisations. This paper draws upon semi-structured interviews with commercial developers, community energy practitioners and intermediary bodies in Great Britain to critically evaluate, for the first time, the scope for repowering to increase the scale of community shareholding in commercial onshore wind assets. The findings reveal support for shared ownership in principle with various rationales for this support, but many challenges are identified in practice. Recommendations are provided regarding how planning systems and government policy could evolve to facilitate shared ownership during repowering.