‘Massive profit’ in green rural co-op

wind-turbine businessman’s plea for scottish farming firm to solve energy crisis

By Keith Findlay

Published:

WIND IN HIS SAILS: Maitland Mackie of Mackie’s, Westerton, Rothienorman, is seeking investors. Kami Thomson

A north-east businessman and farmer is behind an initiative to solve the looming energy crisis.

Maitland Mackie, the chairman of Rothienorman-based ice-cream firm Mackie’s of Scotland, believes it could be the answer to a fast-growing shortfall in power supply.

Launching the scheme yesterday, Mr Mackie said it was a “huge opportunity” for the whole rural community to share the “massive profits” to be made from green energy.

The idea was sparked by the recent installation of three wind turbines on the hills near Mackie’s for a total outlay of £2.5million.

Mr Mackie said the business was now making far more electricity than it used, with the extra being fed into the National Grid.

If used on a wider scale, the same concept could create enough energy to outstrip the UK’s current generating capacity of around 85 gigawatts a year, he added.

Mr Mackie is seeking 10,000 farmers and landowners, including 1,000 in Scotland, to each chip in a minimum of £1,000 to get a new company – provisionally named Rural Sector Wingen – up and running.

The initial buy-in would allow any profits made later to be delivered back to rural communities in the form of share dividends, rather than into the hands of “City entrepreneurs” he said.

Mackie’s chairman said he was optimistic the logic behind the scheme would not be lost on potential investors or planning authorities, given the looming energy crisis.

He added the world is using the equivalent of 27billion barrels of oil per year to meet its energy needs, but finding just three billion barrels of new supply annually. Demand is still escalating, making it more critical for countries to find other means of electricity generation.

He said the City and big business were already “picking the cherries” of suitable wind power sites – leaving landowners with just “the crumbs”.

“Rural Sector Wingen will offer farmers, landowners and others in rural areas the opportunity of collective action to create and own a new, highly remunerative power generating company and to share the rewards with the wider community.”

The initiative could also regenerate depressed industrial areas of the UK by creating demand for the manufacture of thousands of wind turbines a year, he said.

He was unfazed by potential planning hurdles, saying the “Not in My Back Yard” response to past windfarms was no longer valid and that farmer ownership would be widely supported.

Mr Mackie was also confident the £270billion investment the scheme would need over 12 years was unlikely to be a problem as the potential returns were attractive.