Community benefits from net zero energy developments: consultation

Ministerial foreword

The importance of green energy to our future economy and environment has never been clearer. It will provide thousands of highly skilled jobs, decarbonise many of our industries, transport and heating systems and be the driver of huge economic growth for our country. But how will it impact our communities, particularly those who will have developments on their doorsteps? Our view is that those communities must see tangible and long lasting benefits, and that there must be improvements on how these are delivered and how those communities are involved in decision making.

With more and more projects coming into the pipeline now is the right time to review our Good Practice Principles for onshore and offshore renewable energy developments. I am proud to say that the current Good Practice Principles have enabled investment in community projects worth millions of pounds over the last decade. We want to continue this leadership in community benefits by publishing this consultation to ensure that our guidance is current and continues to be a best practice tool for the communities and developers it serves.

Communities are at the heart of our green energy transition, and we want to realise the opportunities for communities to share in the significant economic and social benefits created through developing Scotland’s renewable energy resources – supporting a just transition to net zero. This means supporting jobs, supply chain businesses and wider growth, building on developers’ commitments to invest an average of £1.5 billion in Scotland per project across the 20 ScotWind projects. It also means increasing access to cleaner, more sustainable energy, and delivering meaningful and long lasting benefits for people in communities. Embracing this opportunity will contribute towards achieving our mission to tackle poverty and support community wealth building. Our ambition for the future of community benefits needs to be commensurate with the scale of opportunity from Scotland’s net zero energy transition.

We also need to work with the UK Government to ensure Clean Power 2030, the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan, GB Energy and wider UK energy policies deliver for the people of Scotland. Scotland’s energy system exists within a UK framework of energy legislation, regulation and policy reserved to the UK Government. We look to the UK Government to accelerate reforms to the electricity grid, transmission charges and the wholesale electricity market, as critical enablers of our net zero goals. The people of a country producing high volumes of clean electricity should see direct benefits in terms of affordability of energy. We will continue to advocate for Scotland’s communities to receive a just and equitable outcome from increased transmission infrastructure development and we will continue to call on the UK Government to consult on mandating benefits from onshore projects.

We want to use all levers available to ensure that Scotland’s community benefit arrangements deliver sustainable, meaningful and impactful outcomes, informed by the voices of our diverse communities. Through this consultation, we want to hear from a wide range of community, industry, public and third sector stakeholders, as well as those with an interest in Scotland’s climate, economy, energy security, fuel poverty and community wealth building. In 2025, the Scottish Government will be engaging across the country, both in person and online, to help shape the future of this work. I am determined that Scotland’s renewable energy resources should deliver even more significant benefits to our society and your welcomed engagement is the next step to ensure this.

This document includes information to help you formulate your views and see how benefits may be deployed, including case studies, but if you would like to go straight to the response page click here.

Gillian Martin MSP, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy