Julie James, Minister for Climate Change
Today, I am pleased to publish a guidance document on local and shared ownership of energy projects in Wales. As we seek to scale up renewable energy generation in Wales to support our net zero commitments, we want to do so in a way that retains wealth and value in Wales. We believe that local and shared ownership provides a way of retaining benefits in Wales beyond traditional community benefit models. The guidance provides clarification on how shared ownership can be achieved and also provides developers, local communities and decision-makers within Wales the tools they will need to embrace our ambition and targets for local and community-owned renewable energy.
This publication delivers on one of the recommendations of the Deputy Minister for Climate Change’s renewable energy deep dive, which sought to identify barriers and solutions to scaling up renewable energy in Wales, whilst retaining wealth and ownership within Wales.
We have committed to expanding renewable energy generation by public bodies and community enterprises in Wales by over 100 MW between 2021 and 2026 as we look to meet our longer-term target of 1 GW of renewable energy generation capacity to be locally owned by 2030. This guidance document forms part of a package of support, alongside our Welsh Government Energy Service and funding to Community Energy Wales, to help us achieve these ambitions.
We have deliberately not been overly prescriptive in the models suggested as we welcome creative and innovative projects across Wales that meet our objectives and the needs of local communities. We anticipate that over time we will have further examples of projects onshore, and potentially offshore, which embrace these objectives and help Wales become a leading nation of shared and locally owned energy.
We will continue to monitor the uptake of shared and local ownership of energy projects and publish our findings through future Energy Generation in Wales reports.
The guidance document and associated Collaborative Benefits Report template can be accessed here.