A GROUND BREAKING bid by several community groups in Cowal to take control of a major windfarm has been rejected by Forestry Land Scotland, (FLS), sparking outrage among local campaigners who claim the process is stacked in favour of
big corporations.
The bid by Cowal Community Energy, (CCE), was the first of its kind in Scotland, aiming to secure full community ownership of Cruach Mhor Windfarm. If successful, it would have set a precedent for other Scottish communities to directly benefit from the renewable energy boom.
Instead, FLS rejected the application, prompting vows to fight back from CCE leaders, who claim there was a failure to even consider the possibility of a community-led bid.
The current leaseholder of Cruach Mhor Windfarm is Scottish Power Renewables, owned by Spanish multinational Iberdrola. The lease is due for renewal in 2029, and FLS opened a bidding process for future ownership.
The CCE plan would have kept 100 per cent of the windfarm’s income in Cowal, a move which they claim would have generated millions for the local economy. Instead, FLS shut out the local bid, and has yet to reveal the preferred bidder.
CCE leaders argue that FLS and the Scottish Government repeatedly claim to support community wealth-building— yet when given the chance to act, they blocked the Cowal bid.
Graeme Murray, director of CCE, said: “FLS and the Scottish Government are public bodies who emphasise their support for communities and repeatedly state how local areas should benefit from the surge in renewables. They emphasise community consultation and openness.
“In discussion with officials from FLS they confirmed that, in writing their tender process, they did not even consider the possibility that a community bid would be received, and that the process was conceived on the assumption that only corporate developers would bid.
“This clearly confirms to me that the process was not constructed in such a manner that it would facilitate communities being able to bid on equal terms with corporate developers and so we will now be challenging that process.”
Graeme Murray, added, “We have detailed a plan to finance the project, we have made sure we have access to the necessary expertise to run this type of project, we represent around 80 per cent of the people in Cowal, we are working within both the Government’s and the FLS’s stated policy to support communities to benefit from the renewables explosion.
“And yet, for some reason that isn’t clear, our community bid has been rejected.If our bid can be rejected, the idea that Scottish communities will benefit properly from renewables is for the birds. We just don’t think FLS thought it through.”
Alan Stewart, another CCE director, expressed astonishment that FLS hadn’t even considered a community-led approach.
He said: “We’ve been told by Forestry and Land Scotland that they simply had not expected a community bid which is genuinely astonishing in the 21st Century and given the emphasis on community empowerment promoted by all our public bodies.
“This all shows that – despite the warm words – everything is still weighted to the well-resourced corporate developers with lots of available resources and established expertise. As things stand, the Community groups have no chance in the bidding process.
As part of our efforts to overturn the FLS decision, the Cowal Community group hope to speak to Scottish Government ministers, as well as recruiting help from political representatives and organisations who support the Cruach Mhor initiative.”
