Scottish communities reaped £20mn in benefits from renewable energy businesses in a 12-month period, Local Energy Scotland confirmed on 11 February.
The Register of Community Benefits, maintained by Local Energy Scotland, revealed that income generated from more than 240 renewable energy projects across Scotland are now benefitting communities.
Monies are used to secure long-term benefits including investing in more renewable energy projects, alleviating fuel poverty and creating sustainable transport schemes.
Local Energy Scotland recently launched a new, free Community Benefits Toolkit to make it even easier for communities to secure, set up and mange funds and wider packages of community benefits from renewable energy schemes. Chris Morris, Local Energy Scotland Manager, said: “We know that community benefits make a real and transformational difference to communities, and it’s great to see this landmark milestone being reached. The amount of benefit that these payments offer really goes to show their worth, but we appreciate it can be hard to know where to start if groups are thinking of taking advantage of them.”
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