Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Llinos Medi
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Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits
Llinos Medi Excerpts(1 day, 13 hours ago)
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Llinos Medi (Ynys Môn) (PC)
Ynys Môn, my constituency, is known as “energy island” and has a community-owned project in marine energy at Morlais, which is an example to all. Now there is a proposed large development for solar, covering 3,700 acres, around 2% of the island. The bigger of the two proposals, Maen Hir Energy, is five times the size of the UK’s largest active solar farm. The local corner shop would offer more jobs than this development on the island, which will have a detrimental effect on the economy by affecting agriculture and tourism. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact on our food security of the loss of good quality agricultural land?
The debate motion includes the phrase “community benefits”, but far too often it is a case of large developers offering tokenistic gestures and small sums of money. The community benefits should be renamed “community compensation”, because large developers often give a small amount of money to communities, which are then burdened by the economic and social cost of the project. With the other development on Ynys Môn, Alaw Môn, I have seen at first hand the developer changing the offer to the local community within a matter of days, offering one amount on a Thursday night and a reduced amount on a Tuesday night. That behaviour is totally unacceptable in our communities. It is shocking that developers are required only to make voluntary commitments to compensation, which can seemingly be changed at a whim.
To address the issue, we must move beyond compensation and look at meaningful ownership. Community-owned and led renewable projects could provide lots of local benefits such as cheaper energy bills, could increase resource efficiency and could help to meet our carbon reduction targets without compromising Ynys Môn’s landscape and economy. We need a step change in our energy system to ensure that real community benefit is felt by those who host clean technologies. I hope that the Government listen to the calls for change and take forward proposals that will bring meaningful benefits to local communities.