The Trust was set up as a means of distributing the financial benefit flowing to the local community from the Lower Stanley Solar Farm. The developers and owners of Lower Stanley Solar Farm (Green Hedge Renewables and CTF Solar Gmbh respectively) are bound by two agreements made by the during the planning process:
Quarterly payments to the community for the life of the project
This is an index linked payment amounting to £812 per Megawatt - about £4,000 per annum in 2016.
You can download the actual undertaking here, meanwhile the highlights are as follows:
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From the day of commissioning until the decommissioning of the solar farm, the owner is contracted to pay a community benefit contribution of £812 per annum, per megawatt capacity installed to the Green Fields Trust. In years where the solar farm is commissioned or decommissioned, this payment will be made pro rata. On each anniversary of commissioning, the amount will be adjusted in respect of any change in the Retail Price Index (RPI).
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If, by the day of commissioning the government support for solar farms is increased or decreased, the community benefit contribution amount will be adjusted accordingly.
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Any changes in the support for solar farms after the date of commissioning will not have any impact. As the payments are made for capacity rather than annual generation, there will be no fluctuations due to inclement weather or prolonged shut-downs of the proposed solar farm, giving the Trust more certainty about future income.
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The Trust would be free to use the community benefit contributions, which would be paid in arrears on a quarterly basis, as it sees fit, as long as the use of funds is to the benefit of residents and not harmful to the proposed solar farm.
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These provisions are legally binding on the developer and eventual owner and as such enforceable by the trust, giving the Trust the confidence that the proposed community benefits will be forthcoming in their entirety.
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One-off payment to the community to assist with flood alleviation measures
You can download the actual undertaking here, meanwhile the highlights are as follows:
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Within 90 days of being accredited as a renewable energy generator by Ofgem, Green Hedge Renewables, the developer, undertakes to pay a total of £3,000 to Green Fields Trust to be ring fenced for local flood alleviation works in the area south of Marlborough House, Gretton Fields, GL54 5HJ.
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The developer understood that the area was badly flooded in 2007 and while surveys were carried out, no work has been done due to lack of funding.
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The contribution is purely financial and the Green Fields Trust will have to obtain any required consents, land rights and organise works itself.
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If it has not been spent within six years, it can be spent on other good local causes as decided by Green Fields Trust.
