Location: Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire
Technology: 2.5MW turbine
CARES funding: £250,000

Background

Radio City Association was established in the late 1990s as a Millennium Project to restore Kilbirnie’s historic Art Deco cinema. After successfully completing and operating the building for more than 16 years, the organisation sold the property to its long-term tenants, allowing it to focus on a broader mission of community-led regeneration.

Today, the charity works to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the town and the surrounding area through its ambitious Electric Valley strategy. The long-term vision is to create sustainable income that can be reinvested locally, helping to tackle challenges such as fuel poverty, unemployment, declining population and health inequalities while creating new opportunities for future generations.

Although the area is surrounded by commercial wind farms, the community has historically received little direct benefit from the renewable energy generated on its doorstep.

Rather than waiting for external investment, the Association wanted to demonstrate that communities could own renewable energy assets themselves and retain the wealth they create.

Driven largely by a small group of volunteers, the ambitious organisation set out to develop one of Scotland’s largest community-owned wind turbines.

Project aims

Radio City Association created a plan to establish a 2.5MW community-owned wind turbine, standing approximately 110 metres high, making it taller than Big Ben and capable of generating enough renewable electricity to power around 3,000 homes.

The project represented far more than the construction of a renewable energy asset. It was designed to become a long-term source of income that could fund community regeneration for decades while giving local people ownership of the area’s natural resources.

Support from CARES began with a Feasibility Grant of £10,000 at the earliest stages of development with subsequent development loans totalling £250,000 over a five-year period. This enabled the organisation to secure its grid connection, undertake planning, technical studies and the extensive preparatory work required to bring a project of this scale to fruition. The CARES loan was repaid at financial close and incorporated into the final financing package.

The development faced a number of significant challenges. Planning permission required approval through the planning committee after officers initially recommended refusal under local policy. However, the proposal received overwhelming community support, with around 500 letters of support submitted in favour of the application, compared with only a handful of objections.

Following construction, the completed turbine then waited almost a year for grid connection before entering commercial operation in early 2026.

Throughout the process, Radio City Association remained focused on its wider objective: creating an asset that would generate long-term benefits for the community rather than short-term financial returns.

Outcomes

The turbine is now generating renewable electricity and exporting power to the national grid, with electricity supplied through a power purchase agreement to UK businesses.

While income generated during the early years will primarily support repayment of project finance, the structure has been designed to allow investment in community priorities from the outset.

Over its lifetime, the project is expected to generate an estimated £12m to £15m of net income for community investment, subject to future electricity prices.

That income will help deliver the wider ambitions of the Electric Valley strategy, including:

  • Tackling fuel poverty and the cost of living.
  • Improving transport and accessibility.
  • Creating skills, training and employment opportunities.
  • Regenerating community buildings and brownfield sites.
  • Supporting financial inclusion.
  • Creating sustainable economic opportunities for future generations.

For Radio City Association, the project marks a significant shift from relying on external funding towards creating a self-sustaining source of income that can continue supporting local people for decades.

Lessons learned

The project has demonstrated what communities can achieve when they take ownership of their own future.

Developing a project of this scale required determination, strong community backing and a willingness to overcome complex planning, funding and grid connection challenges. While the process was lengthy, the Association believes the long-term benefits far outweigh the difficulties.

General Manager Scott Wilson reflected:

“It’s really about communities taking ownership for themselves and shaping their own destiny; in our case, addressing the steep decline in economic development and reversing the flow of inward investment to other parts of North Ayrshire and directing it here to the Garnock Valley instead. This way we can develop our community sustainably, generate our own income to reinvest locally and create our own future without being dependent on the actions or inactions of others.

“There’s nobody else that’s going to invest in this community, so we have to do it ourselves.”

The project has also shown how early-stage support can unlock much larger investment. By helping the organisation progress through planning and development, CARES enabled Radio City Association to secure the finance needed to deliver one of Scotland’s most significant community-owned renewable energy projects.

Today, the turbine stands not only as a source of clean electricity but as a symbol of what community ownership can achieve.