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| We can see from this that only Spain and the UK have low levels of local ownership of wind power. In Spain this does not seem to matter too much given that already 7 per cent of Spanish electricity is supplied from wind power. In Spain population densities are relatively low, there is less concern about landscape impact compared to other countries and the wind power is generally implemented by local companies who provide local incentives. However population densities are generally rather high in northern Europe. In Germany around 5 per cent of electricity comes from wind power. In Denmark 21 per cent of total electricity consumption comes from wind power. In the UK this proportion is still no more than 1 per cent. The UK suffers by comparison with Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands by not having a significant section of wind power capacity owned by local people. In these latter countries the co-operatives have provided great political enthusiasm for wind power and set up examples which have been emulated by farmers in great numbers. In the UK the farmers have usually been passive recipients of royalties from schemes organised by corporate-backed developers. In Britain the farmers do not usually use their social networks to iron out a lot of the controversies that often feature too prominently in UK wind power planning cases. This use of local contacts, and the prospect of local ownership, makes a tremendous difference in winning support for planning applications for wind power schemes. |