Courses

Dissertation

An Evaluation of Wind Farm Community Benefit Funds in Scotland

SAC Prize for Best Honours Dissertation in Sustainable Environmental Management

I came to SAC as a mature student and chose the Sustainable Environmental Management degree because it offered a really broad programme on the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development – from the scientific and socio-economic aspects of environmental management, to land use planning, countryside management and rural development. 

While this wide range of subjects means you graduate as a bit of a generalist, the course gives you a very valuable understanding of the holistic nature of environmental problems and solutions. 

The wide choice of elective modules allows you to tailor the course to your interests and the honours dissertation gives you the opportunity to focus on a topic of your choice and develop knowledge and contacts that could be useful in your future career.

For my dissertation, I wanted to undertake a research project that would (hopefully!) have some practical use.  I was interested in the opportunities renewable energy presents for rural development and chose to investigate the use of wind farm community benefit funds and how well they contribute to local development in Scotland. 

The project involved a review of existing literature, desk research, questionnaire design, survey data collection and analysis, and writing it all up into a 10,000 word dissertation. 

The process can be daunting at times and it is essential to have clear objectives so you know what you are trying to achieve.

Working on an independent project over several months is quite different from the rest of the course and gives you the chance to develop transferable skills in planning and time management.  I also found working on a ‘real’ project highly rewarding.  I received many encouraging comments that this was indeed a useful area of research, so I hope the findings will be of interest to everyone who took part in the study and that they may help wind farm communities make the most of community benefit funds.

An Evaluation of Wind Farm Community Benefit Funds in Scotland

Abstract

The full version of this dissertation can be downloaded from the right of this page. 

With ambitious Government targets on renewable energy, and the largest wind resource in Europe, Scotland has seen rapid proliferation of wind farms.  The provision of ‘meaningful benefit’ to host communities is believed by the DTI and the Scottish Government to be a key factor in the continued expansion of renewable energy. 

Renewable energy is also seen by the Scottish Government to have important economic potential for the development of rural areas.  With few local jobs or manufacturing contracts, and relatively little community ownership, community benefit funds are currently the principal form of benefit to wind farm communities.  However, such contributions are entirely voluntary and no formal standard exists.

Community benefit funds usually take the form of an annual payment by the developer of a sum linked to the capacity of the wind farm.  They are typically intended for use on local projects of an environmental or other socially beneficial nature. 

Aside from simply making grants available for local use, there is a view that a community benefit fund presents an opportunity for a community to play a significant part in meeting its needs in a way that delivers long-term benefit.  A theory of this study is that the existence of community development structures and capacity may make it easier for communities to make meaningful use of community benefit funds in this way. 

The study had three aims: to discover the extent and nature of wind farm community benefit funds in Scotland; to evaluate how such funds contribute to local development; and to investigate factors that aid or constrain their meaningful use.

The study was based on a review of Local Authority policies on wind farm community benefit and a postal survey of all community benefit fund-managing bodies in Scotland.  The survey was conducted in January 2008 with a response rate of 53%.  The study was confined to community benefit funds provided by commercial wind farm developers of grid-connected onshore wind farms, operational in October 2007, and administered by communities or third-parties appointed on their behalf.  Local Authority administered funds and community benefit in kind were not included.