Our Community
Engagement approach
In our experience, there is no substitute for consulting with the community early and for this reason, we commit to carrying out the design process by placing a fundamental focus on open, honest engagement.
On the ground, we have Community Liaison Officer Owen Diver and Project Manager Emmet Mc Laughlin. Their job is to provide information and answer your queries.
Owen and Emmet are available throughout the project, distributing newsletters and making sure you get the information that you need.
Our commitment to you
- A dedicated project Community Liaison Officer who you can contact directly via email or telephone. We welcome your feedback and comments
- Regular newsletter updates
- All updates added to this website
- The opportunity to meet a team specialist or consultant relevant to your query
- A full project brochure
- A Virtual Exhibition linked to this website
Supporting a local renewable energy project comes with many benefits for the community
Community Benefit Fund
Glenard Wind Farm has the potential to bring significant positive benefits including a Community Benefit Fund in line with industry best practice, which is the Government's Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS).
Those living in closest proximity should be priority beneficiaries and that is why some of the fund is designated for Near Neighbour payments. However, it is important that broader community benefits apply as well.
Community Benefit Fund
The scheme mandates all RESS projects to establish a Community Benefit Fund worth €2/MWh (megawatt hour) of generated electricity for the RESS contract period. FuturEnergy Ireland also offers a further €1/MWh for the remaining lifetime of the project.
The total fund depends on the final power output. If the project does not qualify for RESS, FuturEnergy Ireland pledges to match these contributions.
The new Rulebook for Community Benefit Funds under RESS, published in May 2025 by the Department of the Environment, Climate & Communications, sets out how the funds should be used and managed.
What does your community need?
When it comes to the Community Benefit Fund, communities will be at the centre of the decision-making process, which gives them the opportunity to develop a strategy to maximise the benefits.
One particular focus of the fund is to support local initiatives that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals such as home and community hall retrofits, pollinator farms, cycling paths, educational material and scholarships, and sports club activities.
Local rates contributions
Glenard Wind Farm has the potential to make a substantial contribution in annual rates payments to Donegal County Council, an important contributor in exchequer funding.
This would have a positive impact on the development of local infrastructure such as roads, public transport, lighting, street cleaning, libraries, fire services, public amenities and employment.
Education
We have embedded a holistic approach to education across all of our community engagement programmes to encourage people to learn more about climate change, the environment and the renewable energy transition.
The programme includes:
- Partnering with Biodiversity in Schools to provide Bosca Dúlra to primary schools near our projects. Each Bosca Dúlra, or Nature Box, is an innovative and fun nature toolkit that helps children explore biodiversity all year round.
- Climate in a Box: A series of five interactive lessons on climate and sustainability created by Steam Education for national school children.
- 'Renewable Energy & Your Future' workshops in secondary schools, run by our CLOs and geared towards Transition Year students, with an emphasis on the ‘climate jobs’ market. This may also be accompanied by a trip to a wind farm.
- A new youth advocacy programme, Generation Change, which is designed to help young people who live near our project sites learn more about renewable energy in a non-formal education setting.
“Thanks again for a lovely STEAM Education resource. I found the content and layout excellent so well done to all involved in the planning and development of these wonderful sessions."
"Our school was thrilled to be involved in this initiative and would recommend it to other schools as a way of teaching an important topic in a highly engaging way."
"This is an excellent programme for both children and teachers. It is very user-friendly with well-developed resources and a wide range of activities for the children to engage with."
"Many thanks for delivering an excellent presentation to the girls and for organising our visit to the wind farm. The girls truly loved it."
"The children loved the hands-on nature of the tasks and found the lessons both engaging and fascinating."
Have your say
It’s important for us to be good neighbours and we take this responsibility very seriously. We welcome feedback from the community throughout the lifetime of this project.
There are a number of ways you can do this:
- Speak to us either in person, by phone or via email
- Arrange a one-to-one meeting with the project team
