COMMUNITY ownership has become a hotly contested issue in the renewable energy sector. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme requires all power plants to be owned, in part, by local communities.For the purposes of the programme, communities are defined as being black people living within a 50km radius of a power plant.Community trusts, as the vehicle through which community ownership is achieved, have morphed from a self-evident value generator into a controversial question mark. The community trust structure has been abused to avoid partnering with black businesses in the renewable energy sector and there is a delusion that communities comprise people who are noble and altruistic. Both of these issues have led to two differently motivated lobbies against community ownership.READ THIS: Foxes left to guard the hens that lay community nest eggsThere has been a trend to use community trusts as complete substitutes for black businesses in the ownership st...
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