About UnityWind and Its Organisation

Unity Wind Limited was set up as an Industrial & Provident Society, a co-operative, to encourage renewable wind energy production in Norfolk. It grew out of the Energy Group of the North Norfolk Environment Forum. We are all local people, volunteers, wanting to do our best to combat global warming but also wanting to keep wind energy under the control of local people and wanting local people to gain from the profits. One of our directors works in the industry.

We are sure ‘community turbines’ are the right way to go. Individuals look more kindly on turbines if they know they are profiting from them and have some say in the scale of the scheme. It is generally better for the local community if profits stay in the area.

A community turbine is just like a commercial turbine in that professionals are employed to assess the site, install and manage the turbines. Also rent is paid to the landowner, just as in a commercial scheme and loans from banks are repaid at commercial rates. We would try to raise as much of the capital costs as possible from shares.

As a Industrial & Provident Society, UnityWind is different in several ways from a commercial scheme.

1. The Directors are a voluntary group. They are not there to make private fortunes. In setting up an Industrial & Provident Society you choose your own set of model rules as to how it should be run. In the case of Unity Wind Limited, the directors do not charge any expenses for time, telephone calls, letters, etc, but it has been agreed that any substantial bills they pay will be reimbursed with twice the value of shares in the company.
2. In Unity Wind Limited we have stipulated that local people have first choice in investing, so that they can earn from the turbines once these are established. We have a low minimum share value so that as many local people as possible can afford to be involved
3. Small shareholders have as much control as those who can afford to invest more. In any Industrial & Provident Society every shareholder has one vote, whatever the size of their investment. At present £20,000 is the maximum anyone can invest. This means that a few people cannot invest heavily and take over the company. It is safe with the community. We would also organise early full public consultation, so that local people have a say in the number and size of turbines in the first stages of planning.
4. A feature of Unity Wind Limited is that a yearly ‘rent’ or a proportion of profits, is paid into a local fund to help local residents and businesses cut their carbon footprint. It could help pay for insulation or micro-generation – that is household scale clean energy generation, either small turbines, heat pumps, or solar panels. In this way, even those local residents who cannot afford to invest, can hope to gain from the turbines Commercial schemes also usually pay a yearly sum to the local community, but we intend to make it larger and focussed on energy saving.
5. A community scheme is eligible for grant help. In the case of turbines there are considerable set up costs, surveys needed for planning permission. In general shareholders will only be involved once planning permission is gained, because up to that point no one knows if the scheme is possible, it is necessarily a risky investment.

The founding Directors were Simon Brocklehurst, Peter Crouch, Isobel Havercroft, Roger Hopkinson, Alicia Hull, Hetty Selwyn, Chris Smith and David Spenser. Alicia Hull was Company Secretary. Simon Brocklehurst was Treasurer.

Since then sadly Isobel had died and Simon and Chris have resigned due to other commitments. Our new Treasurer is Jan Sorrell.

Barry Groom, who works in the industry, joined us over a year ago and recently John Swindells has taken over management of the website from Simon Brocklehurst.