Bath and West Community Energy Bath and West Community Wind Farm
Funded Project: Description
This is a 100% community-owned large wind energy project with a maximum capacity of 12.8 MW, equivalent to 4.26% of Bath and North-East Somerset Council’s 2030 renewable energy capacity target. Currently, this is estimated to save 4,160 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The project will be wholly owned by Bath and West Community Energy (BWCE). Project development will be supported by Empowered, who play a similar supporting role with many other community energy groups. Now the planning restrictions on wind are lifted, BWCE is keen to develop their first wind project.
The team will trailblaze and disseminate their experience through BWCE’s role in Community Energy England and Empowered’s work with other groups. Many barriers remain, around planning consent and community engagement, making the development stage more resource intensive than solar projects. This is a strategically important project for the community energy sector to scale up wind deployment by increasing community benefit and consent.