The feed-in tariff has certainly had an impact on this industry and kept us busy over the last months, so it's been a while since I have blogged on this website. A number of people have asked about setting up a community wind turbine.

A number of community wind farms have been set up using large wind turbines. One of the first projects was in Cumbria and is run by Baywind. They have set up an organisation Energy 4 All that has helped set up a number of other projects. 

Smaller turbines in the range 6 to 20 kW are typically installed close to a building to make the electrical connection simple. Ideally a community building can be identified and they will benefit from the free electricty and the community owners can benefit from the feed in tariff  for 20 years.

There are a variety of choices you can make as to the ownership ranging from the co-operative model to a community interest company.

There are a number of useful documents are available on the web that will help you explore the options in much more detail, two in particular are worth pointing out:

Delivering community benefits from wind energy: A toolkit:

and the rather older document revised in 2000 but still containing much useful information

Community Involvement in renewable energy projects  (this downloads a document onto your computer).

These should give you a good start as you plan your project.

Photo by rural learning center

About the author: Graham Eastwick is a director of Encraft, and manages renewable energy installations for home owners, community organisations and small businesses across the UK.

If you have a question about anything in the above blog, please ask it in the comments section below.