Wind energy: Local communities should get a better dividend from wind farms

As Ireland steps up its wind energy capacity, Neil Michael learns that our flawed model for ensuring communities benefit from local wind farms may be undermining the objectives of a 'just transition'

Templederry Wind Farm in Tipperary is an outlier, being Ireland's only community-owned wind power generator. By contrast, the first ORESS-1 auction round awarded contracts to huge, mostly foreign-based companies worth billions. Picture: Neil Michael 

Two words often get neglected in discussions about wind energy — “just transition”.

The noise from protests about wind farms, the prospect of Ireland being fined billions of euro for missing 2030 climate targets, and the growing chorus in favour of decarbonisation get far more attention than a concept that is actually the cornerstone of EU climate policy.