Community benefits

To find out more about our work with communities visit our Community webpages.

RWE npower renewables offers a range of community benefit packages at our operating onshore and offshore wind farms; these usually benefit those communities living closest to the site.

There are a number of existing models, which have been negotiated locally to meet the specific needs of individual areas. The model varies depending on the size, type and geographical make up of local communities. These packages have been used to fund a wide variety of activities including community building refurbishments, environmental education programmes, energy efficiency schemes and supporting local groups and organisations.

At Hellrigg this will take the form of a community fund worth £15,000 per annum, index linked in line with inflation, which will become available shortly and for the life of the Wind Farm.  RWE npower renewables prides itself on ensuring decisions about how funding is allocated are made by local people for the benefit of their community. We do this by establishing a grants panel made up of local people, to make decisions about the allocation of funding, and in this case that panel will be convened and managed by the Cumbria Community Foundation.

The document below outlines the proposed structure and administration of the Community Fund that we consulted local communities on in November 2011. The feedback we received suggested that local communities felt that our proposed structure and administration would be suitable, so we are now in the process of setting up the fund as outlined in the document below.

Many thanks to the local people that responded to our consultation and those who have nominated themselves to join the grants panel. Cumbria Community Foundation is currently in the process of setting up and training the new panel, following which the fund will be open for applications. Once the fund is available, more information on how to make an application will be available here and the fund will also be well advertised locally.

Local Economic Benefit

During the development and construction of Hellrigg contracts with local companies represent significant investment into the local economy. Contracts with local companies include:

Lowther Forestry Group, Lowther, Near Penrith (trees, hedges & fencing)
G & AM Lawson, Workington (plant & machinery)
Byers Bros Ltd, Carlisle (steel work)
Hanson Aggregates, Carlisle (concrete)
North Pennines Archaeology, Alston, Cumbria
Story Group, Carlisle (stone)