How wind farm community payments in Ireland work
Every wind and solar farm built under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, known as RESS, has to pay 2 euro into a local community fund for every megawatt hour of electricity it generates. A megawatt hour is the amount of electricity 1 megawatt of capacity produces running for 1 hour. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications set that rate in a 2021 handbook and confirmed in a December 2024 document that it is unchanged and not linked to the Consumer Price Index, the official measure of rising prices. Wind farm community payments in Ireland stay at 2 euro no matter how much a project earns from selling its power.
The handbook that set the rate gives its own worked examples of what it produces. A 5 megawatt solar farm generates a fund of about 10,000 euro a year, a 10 megawatt wind farm about 60,000 euro a year, a 50 megawatt solar farm about 100,000 euro a year, and a 50 megawatt wind farm about 300,000 euro a year, all at the same fixed rate.
These are illustrative worked examples published by the Department for a project of that size at the fixed 2 euro rate, not measured output from a specific project.
Show the numbers
| 5 megawatt solar | 10000 |
| 10 megawatt wind | 60000 |
| 50 megawatt solar | 100000 |
| 50 megawatt wind | 300000 |
The fund keeps paying for the length of the support period a project holds under RESS, typically 15 years. It also carries its own mandatory floor for the closest neighbours. A household within 1 kilometre of a turbine is entitled to a minimum of 1,000 euro a year, and a household between 1 and 2 kilometres can receive a payment from the rest of the fund with no fixed minimum. Payments of this kind to near neighbours are capped, together, at 50% of the fund.
Why Mayo county council says the rate is not enough
Independent Councillor Harry Barrett raised the issue at 2 Mayo County Council meetings this year, on March 12 and April 21, 2026. 1 wind farm operation in County Mayo already maintains an external community fund of 90,000 euro a year, an example Barrett cited, though that number describes 1 operation alone, not a typical Mayo figure. At the Oweninny Wind Farm, a joint venture between Bord na Mona and ESB, the fund is managed by Mayo County Council itself, and a separate scheme pays 4 scholarships of 2,500 euro a year, for up to 4 years, to students within 12 kilometres of the site.
The €2/megawatt is frozen in time and shrinking every year.
Harry Barrett, independent councillor, Mayo County Council. Source 2.
The scholarship figure is a separate education scheme for individual students at Oweninny Wind Farm, source 5, not the community fund itself. The Mayo windfarm figure is an external community fund maintained by 1 operation, not a Mayo average, source 1. The 300,000 euro figure is the model the Department itself publishes for a 50 megawatt wind farm at the fixed rate, source 3, not a specific project.
Show the numbers
| Oweninny scholarship, one student a year | 2500 |
| Mayo windfarm example, one operation a year | 90000 |
| Department model, a 50 megawatt wind farm a year | 300000 |
Council chief executive Kevin Kelly explained why he does not expect operators to raise their payments without being pushed. Councillor Michael Loftus raised a related problem at the same meeting. When the grid operator curtails a turbine, turns it off because the grid cannot take its output, the compensation paid to the operator for that curtailment does not pass through the community fund at all.
Voluntary increasing doesn't work. If a company can pay €2 as required they won't give €5.
Kevin Kelly, chief executive, Mayo County Council. Source 2.
The rate is already a floor, not a ceiling
Neither councillor states this on the record, but the Department does, in its own December 2024 document, describing the payment as a minimum, not a cap. That match is only visible to someone who reads the policy document directly, not the news coverage of the council meeting, and it means Mayo does not need new legislation for a higher rate. The council can negotiate directly with wind and solar operators today, project by project, for a payment above 2 euro per megawatt hour, without waiting for a change to the national scheme.