More than £116,000 is to be handed to community projects around Gowerton, as construction advances on the solar farm that divided the area for years.
Infinis, the company behind the scheme it now brands the Gowerton Clean Energy Hub, says its Community Benefit Fund will open for applications this autumn.
A Community Benefit Panel of people with local knowledge of the surrounding communities is being assembled to help decide how the money is used, with grant specialist GrantScape managing applications.
Details of who can apply, and how, are promised ahead of the launch.
Local councillors and community members have been shown around the site, where construction partner Greenvolt Next is at work, with rows of panel mounting frames already standing in the fields.
Bruce Heppenstall, Infinis chief executive, said the development was “an important investment in renewable energy for South Wales, but our commitment to the area is much broader than the electricity the project will generate”.
“We want local people to have a meaningful voice in how the project can benefit their community,” he said, adding that the panel would help make sure funding “supports local priorities”.
Melanie James, the company’s community link, said there were “so many different groups doing fantastic work in and around Gowerton”, and that the fund had the potential to make a real difference.
“It’s important that people who know the area and understand the community have a voice in how the fund develops,” she said.
The company has been running energy workshops with schools, delivered with education partner Megawatt at Cadle Primary School and Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr, with another planned at Gowerton Comprehensive in the autumn term.
An internship linked to the project will also give a local young person experience of the renewable energy sector, the first opportunity under the company’s Infinis Futures scheme.
Infinis says the 50MWp development will generate the equivalent of around 22,400 homes’ annual electricity use, save around 9,000 tonnes of CO2 a year and deliver a 26% biodiversity net gain, with battery storage planned for a later phase. Around 25 local jobs are being supported during construction, it says.
The fields between Gowerton, Garden Village, Waunarlwydd and Fforestfach were the subject of one of Swansea’s most debated planning applications, going through years of consultation and strong local opposition.
Known through planning as Parc Solar Caenewydd, the development was decided by Welsh ministers as a Development of National Significance rather than by Swansea Council, and won a guaranteed price for its electricity in February while the planning decision was still pending.
The fund’s autumn launch will be the first direct community money from the project.
Discover more from Swansea Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
