In a press release earlier this week, WWEA released this definition of community power alongside a new study on the public acceptance of community-owned wind:
A project can be defined as Community Power if at least two of the following three criteria are fulfilled:
1. Local stakeholders own the majority or all of a project
A local individual or a group of local stakeholders, whether they are farmers, cooperatives, independent power producers, financial institutions, municipalities, schools, etc., own, immediately or eventually, the majority or all of a project.2. Voting control rests with the community-based organization:
The community-based organization made up of local stakeholders has the majority of the voting rights concerning the decisions taken on the project.3. The majority of social and economic benefits are distributed locally:
The major part or all of the social and economic benefits are returned to the local community.
The press release also references this recent study of community ownership that we covered last week: Community Ownership Boosts Support for Renewables.
