2.5 MW community-owned wind challenge in Ayrshire goes into industrial operation

The Kilbirnie wind turbine¹ has accomplished its first full week of operations, turning into Scotland’s first community-owned growth to function commercially with out long-term authorities subsidies.² This watershed second for neighborhood vitality follows the UK Authorities and Nice British Power publishing its Native Energy Plan this month, aiming to take a position £1 billion in domestically owned clear vitality tasks and guarantee communities immediately profit from the schemes they host.³ (Phrases: Thrive Renewables).

The two.5MW turbine in Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire, can contribute over 7,000 MWh of renewable electrical energy to the nation’s vitality system per 12 months. That’s the equal of powering over 2,000 common Scottish properties.⁴ Moreover, the event will ship over 3,000 tonnes of carbon emissions reductions yearly.⁵

The challenge will immediately profit native causes, with all earnings from electrical energy gross sales going into Radio Metropolis’s programme of sustainable growth tasks that handle the necessity for capital funding in a brand new Employment Hub, providing employment and coaching alternatives for native individuals, enhance sustainable transport alternatives and assist to handle well being and academic inequalities domestically, in addition to upgrading native sports activities and leisure services.

Allan Wilson, a Director of ATTIX CIC, mentioned: “This has been a protracted and at instances torturous journey for our neighborhood, however we’ve prevailed and are available out on the finish stronger than we began, with a long-term useful asset that can pay huge dividends for an space too lengthy ignored for funding by others. We at the moment are embarking on a unique journey however bolstered over the long run by re-investing proceeds from our endeavours again into enhancing services and companies domestically and addressing a few of this space’s many challenges.”

The UK Authorities’s Power Minister, Michael Shanks, mentioned: “That is what neighborhood vitality is all about – giving individuals a stake in vitality technology so earnings go to what issues, from tackling gas poverty to enhancing native sports activities services in Ayrshire.

“With Nice British Power we’re delivering the largest public funding in neighborhood vitality in Britain’s historical past, by means of our Native Energy Plan, so extra communities can personal and management clear vitality tasks that ship advantages for his or her space.”

Scotland’s Power Secretary, Gillian Martin, mentioned: “The Scottish Authorities is dedicated to supporting the expansion of neighborhood vitality by means of CARES and we’re proud to have supplied this challenge with each funding and assist. Each neighborhood challenge is essential in serving to us to attain a simply transition to a web zero future and my congratulations go to the workforce at Radio Metropolis Affiliation for reaching this essential milestone in what’s a major and progressive growth in delivering community-owned vitality.”

It’s going to additionally assist the charity’s ongoing work to handle the substantial gas poverty in its neighborhood by means of help with vitality vouchers, distribution of halogen heaters and electrical blankets, in addition to one to at least one recommendation to fight and scale back peoples’ vitality payments.

The novel method to funding the wind turbine supplies a blueprint for financing the community-led vitality transition from the bottom up. It brings collectively £5.6 million in blended finance – £1.6 million in social funding from Social Funding Scotland and £4 million from Group Power Catalyst, a £40 million facility managed by Thrive Renewables, in partnership with Higher Society Capital. Native Power Scotland supported the challenge by means of planning and design with a mortgage from the Scottish Authorities’s Group and Renewable Power Scheme (CARES). The challenge has additionally obtained a mixture of Nice British Power and Scottish Authorities grant funding by way of CARES.

CEO of Thrive Renewables, Matthew Clayton, mentioned: “The Kilbirnie wind turbine is proof of the important function that communities must play within the transition to scrub vitality, not solely including important capability to the grid however making certain the advantages are felt at a neighborhood degree. We’re thrilled to see the turbine commissioned and sit up for seeing the affect it has inside Kilbirnie, serving to assist some essential neighborhood causes and initiatives which have traditionally struggled for funding.”

Joe Shamash, Funding Director at Higher Society Capital, commented: “ATTIX reveals what communities can obtain once they have the best instruments and finance to take possession of their native vitality infrastructure. Group-owned renewable vitality like that is a tremendous method to assist meet the UK’s rising vitality wants whereas additionally making certain the advantages stream again to the communities that host them.

“This challenge is a giant milestone for neighborhood vitality in Scotland. We’re actually completely happy to have performed a small function on this, and we’re eager to see extra partnerships like this between communities and buyers this 12 months.”

ATTIX CIC is a Group Curiosity Firm established and asset locked to Radio Metropolis Affiliation Ltd to develop the neighborhood turbine in Kilbirnie. In addition to this onshore wind turbine, Radio Metropolis Affiliation can also be growing its wider ‘Electrical Valley’ sustainability challenge together with working with Scottish Water within the growth of a small-scale hydro web site. This may even be used to re-invest again into the area people, selling sustainable and reasonably priced neighborhood transport and vitality effectivity.

Alastair Davis, Chief Government Officer at Social Funding Scotland, mentioned: “We’re proud to have supported ATTIX CIC with a £1.6 million funding to assist convey the Kilbirnie wind turbine to life. This challenge reveals how community-owned renewable vitality can ship each clear energy and long-term native profit. We sit up for backing extra partnerships that put communities on the coronary heart of Scotland’s vitality transition.”

Chris Morris, Native Power Scotland Supervisor, added: “CARES funding has helped Radio Metropolis Affiliation to develop this main neighborhood challenge, offering assist from an preliminary concept, by means of the planning course of and to energisation. Congratulations to the proficient workforce at Radio Metropolis, whose onerous work and tenacity have introduced this challenge to life, in order that the neighborhood will really feel the advantages for years to return.”

Notes
[1] It is usually referred to as the ATTX CIC challenge.
[2] The challenge operates on a ‘service provider’ foundation promoting electrical energy on a purely industrial foundation, with out authorities worth assist mechanisms reminiscent of Contracts for Distinction or historic Feed-in Tariffs.
[3] In accordance with its current strategic plan, Nice British Power (GBE) plans to assist over 1,000 neighborhood vitality teams to take a stake within the UK vitality transition.
[4] Calculated utilizing the newest subnational statistics from the Division for Power Safety and Web Zero (DESNZ) displaying that common home family consumption in Scotland is 3,429.3kWh every year.
[5] Carbon discount is calculated by multiplying the estimated annual technology (7GWh) by the variety of tonnes of carbon which fossil fuels would produce to generate the identical quantity of electrical energy. We’ve used DESNZ’s “all non-renewable fuels” emissions statistic of 448 tonnes of carbon dioxide per GWh of electrical energy equipped from the Digest of UK Power Statistics (July 2025) Desk 5.14 (“Estimated carbon dioxide emissions from electrical energy equipped”).