Chamber and committees

On 7 May, the Scottish Government published new guidance on how to deliver consistent and meaningful pre-application consultation for transmission projects requiring an environmental impact assessment. That guidance creates more transparency around the process, ensuring that communities understand when and how they can best input at the various stages of development.

The Scottish Government has also been working with the United Kingdom Government on its Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which includes provisions to make pre-application consultation statutory for the first time. That will guarantee communities the opportunity to have their say earlier in the process.

The previous Conservative UK Government showed no interest in making either community engagement or community benefits associated with developments or transmission mandatory, despite the Scottish Government asking for that to be addressed urgently. The legislation and regulations that we must, in law, abide by in Scotland when considering applications are set by the UK Government. The Scottish Conservatives know that, but they are determined to create a narrative that says that everything surrounding the issue is in the hands of the Scottish Government.

I say to Mr Halcro Johnston that I wish that we had every lever available at our disposal with regard to these matters. In an independent Scotland, we would change the regulations to ensure strict—[Interruption.]

In an independent Scotland, we would change the regulations to ensure strict community engagement conditions.

I am grateful for the opportunity to open today’s debate and to shine an important spotlight on community-owned energy in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to growing our economy in a way that also ends our contribution to climate change. Our drive to bring down emissions comes with huge potential for wealth creation, not least in our communities. To deliver a just transition, we must continue to work with communities, businesses, industry and the people of Scotland to plan for a future in which Scotland is a leader in low-emission systems and technologies, with all the jobs and reduction in the cost of living that can come from that.

It is essential that our communities reap the benefits of the transition, which is about the outcome—a fairer, greener, more resilient and prosperous future—and the way in which we get there. The transition will be in partnership with our citizens and based on an understanding and acceptance of the reasons why it is a priority for the nation’s health, wellbeing and vibrant economy, for us and our children for decades to come.

Community energy plays a particularly important role in empowering communities to take ownership of their energy future. Communities owning their own wind, solar and other renewable projects puts them at the centre of the revolution in power generation, while bringing in valuable revenue that can be directed towards community priorities, such as tackling fuel poverty, upgrading local infrastructure and supporting community events.

The Scottish Government has a long history of supporting the delivery of projects in community-led renewable energy, energy demand reduction and energy supply. The impact of community energy over time is demonstrated by the work of the Point and Sandwick Trust on the Isle of Lewis. That project began in 2005 as a public discussion on the possibility of developing a large community-owned wind farm on common grazing grounds. The project developed from there, with support from a community and renewable energy Scotland scheme—CARES—loan.

By 2015, installation had been completed and the turbines were energised, and it became one of the biggest community-owned wind farms in the whole of the United Kingdom. Today, it produces around £900,000 a year in net income for the local community. Once capital costs have been repaid, it is expected to generate up to £2 million a year. Those funds support projects in and around the local area, providing valuable benefits for the community.

The Scottish Government is determined to build on these community energy successes with our new community energy generation growth fund, which will provide up to £8 million to boost community energy in Scotland. That includes £4 million that the Scottish Government has secured from Great British Energy to support community and local energy in Scotland, alongside £4 million of Scottish Government funding.

That programme for government commitment will help to grow the pipeline of community energy in Scotland, enabling more communities to benefit from owning their own renewable energy projects. The community energy generation growth fund is a significant expansion on last year’s pilot and will help to deliver the social and financial benefits of the energy transition directly to Scotland’s communities.

This debate is about communities that want to have their own community-owned schemes, rather than being anything to do with planning or consents. If the member has specific concerns on planning and consents for developments, that is a separate subject, which he can write to me on. I am happy to answer all his questions on that, but I am concentrating now on community energy, which is proving to be a great boost for the communities that take forward projects.

Community energy also has a role to play in supporting off-grid communities such as the Knoydart peninsula. Knoydart is not connected to the national electricity grid and generates all its own electricity through a single hydroelectric turbine. Knoydart Renewables Ltd, or KRL, supplies most of the energy in Knoydart, and it is responsible for maintaining a 28kW hydro-power system. CARES recently provided funding to refurbish Knoydart’s hydro-power scheme. That work means that it will be able to meet the peak power requirements for the community for another 40-plus years, and that has allowed new properties to be built and to be connected to the islanded electrical network.

Those projects, which are led by a wide range of communities, with their different geographies and priorities, demonstrate the impact that community energy can have. However, community energy is not the only way in which our communities can secure benefits from the energy transition. Reflecting on Maurice Golden’s question to me, shared ownership, where communities take a share in a commercial renewable energy project, can also offer communities significant opportunities, and we are committed to supporting communities to access such opportunities.

CARES offers support for communities that are looking to invest in shared ownership, providing free-to-use online guidance and resources. The scheme can help communities to access funding and contractors for project management, financial matters and legal matters, and it can ensure that all communities have all the information to decide if that sort of ownership is right for them.

The Scottish Government has been calling for the mandating of community benefits. We did not have any luck with the previous UK Government, but the current UK Government has put out a consultation. I think that it went out last week, and I look forward to seeing its results.

I can confirm that that is shared funding from both Governments. It has not been repurposed; it is new money. It is for the expansion of the capacity of CARES off the back of the pilot work that we did.

I said to Mr Lumsden this morning that the legislative consent memorandum actually mandates community engagement, whereas at the moment that is voluntary. It puts in law the need for companies, developers and transmission owners to engage with communities.

There are a number of things at play. The member will be aware that, after a great deal of encouragement from the Scottish Government, the UK Government has put out a consultation on community benefits from developments that are happening in renewables. That is one area in which communities can benefit. With community energy projects, there is the option for developers to go to communities and propose community benefit as a solution—or maybe an offer—as part of their good neighbour principle.

Even if that does not happen in an area, communities can come together to contact the community and renewable energy Scotland scheme to ask for advice on how they can build their own community energy plant of whatever description. The CARES model has been shown to be very successful, so much so that it is one of the reasons why I asked the UK Government to take money from the local power plan and put it into CARES rather than setting up a new agency.

There are a few reasons for that. Historically, communities felt that they almost had to be engineers or to have an expert in their community, and one of the reasons why we set up CARES was to share information with communities on how to implement projects. We are 55 per cent towards our target of renewable community energy generation by 2030. In large part, there has been a real step change in the number of projects because of CARES.

Of course, there are still other barriers—I will mention them in other parts of my speech—and there is a lot that we can do to bring them down. Patrick Harvie’s position is absolutely right. I want the barriers to communities’ ability to take forward projects to be looked at and eliminated as much as possible.

The £8 million community energy generation growth fund will boost community energy and it is a significant expansion on last year’s community energy pilot. Going back to Patrick Harvie’s point, we have seen success with the funding that has been given to CARES in work with communities to overcome some of those barriers. That is why we did the pilot and put the additional £8 million into it. The fund will support community groups across Scotland to develop their own wind and solar photovoltaic projects. Applications for funding are now open and will close on 25 June. Full funding guidance, including information on how to apply, can be found on the Local Energy Scotland website, which includes a list of Local Energy Scotland officials in an area with whom communities can get in touch in the first instance.