Meikle Carewe Wind Farm in Aberdeenshire has helped the local community in Aberdeenshire to save money on their fuel bills. According to developers RES, residents and businesses located near the wind farm have saved £122 on their electricity bills through the RES Local Electricity Discount Scheme.

The approach by the energy company sees those living and working around the wind farm sharing in the revenue of the wind farm through a direct discount on their electricity bills every year. It is the first such scheme in Scotland to deliver direct discounts on customers' bills from a wind farm.

Fergus Ewing, Energy Minister, commented: "I very much welcome this initiative by RES to help support and benefit the local people in our community. It is important that communities living close to renewable developments can see tangible benefits from these developments.

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"The Local Electricity Discount Scheme being launched today will directly help to make energy more affordable to nearby communities. I would like to see this type of initiative being offered more widely and would encourage other developers to consider this option."

Gordon MacDougall, Managing Director at RES, said: "Our Local Electricity Discount Scheme is an easy and equitable way of providing the community a financial 'share' in their local wind farm.

"We developed the Local Electricity Discount Scheme (LEDS) in response to feedback from local communities around RES' existing wind farms. People told us that they wanted cheaper electricity in return for hosting a project, so we worked out a way to make that happen.

"Under LEDS, we're giving residential, community and business properties closest to all new RES wind farms a discount of at least £100 per year off their electricity bills, irrespective of who their supplier is. The discount will apply for the lifetime of each wind farm - around 25 years."

(JP/IT)