1. Working with Communities
Patrick Downes

2. Working With Communities
• Understanding the context
• Getting the community on board with Energy & Infrastructure projects
• Involving them in the process & gaining their trust
• Utilising information received
• Building relationships with community groups & understanding the dynamics of
community gain
• Targeting hard to reach groups
• Changing the mind set in the public sector

3. UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

4. Jul
y 1963

11. RENEWABLES

12. ISSUES TO BARE IN MIND
• AUSTERITY - AUSTERITY - AUSTERITY
• FRACKING
• GEOPOLITICS/MIDDLE EAST
• PRICE OF OIL
• RUSSIA
• CASPIAN SEA
• POPULATION GROWTH (RURAL DECLINE)
• INDIA/CHINA/AFRICA
• SCARCE RESOURCES
• THE EURO & UK
• ISLAND NATION & ENERGY SECURITY

15. WIND & WATER

16. We operate within a completely different
communications & technology
paradigm to anything that’s gone before us.
We create as much information in two days now as we did from
the dawn of civilization up until
2003 !
The APOLLO programme as it was, could be run from an Iphone !

18. SOCIAL MEDIA

19. The War of Words

20. Getting the Community on board
with Energy & Infrastructure projects
TRUST

24. Involving the community in the process & gaining
trust
JOHN 8:32
“And the truth shall set you free..”

25. Utilising information received
How does one harvest
this information?

26. PROVIDE ACCESSIBILITY
• The public have access to all documentation
relevant to the decision-making process
• Easy access WebPages
• AIE process
• Published Phone number
• Public information days in the communities
• Publish EIS /Planning application
• RFI documentation
PROVIDE INFORMATION
• The public are informed where material relevant to
the decision making process can be obtained.
• WebPage easily navigated
• Regular Newsletters
• Phone number manned during unsocial hours
• Public Information days
• Presentations to stakeholders
• Open Days on proposed sites

27. PROVIDE INTERACTION
• The participation techniques used allow stakeholder
to contribute effectively
• Public information sessions with our staff
• Site visits from near neighbors
• Open conversation with our staff
• Local project offices/clinics
• Local Liaison
• Competence of our people
• The public have the ability to challenge experts and
have access to the necessary information to do this
effectively
RECOGNISE
• Recognise that the outcome of positive stakeholder
interaction and participation influences the decision
making process.

28. ACCEPT COMPROMISE
• The process used allows a consensus to be
achieved.
• Pre planning process
• Pre application
• Post application
• Pre construction
• Post Construction
TRUST
• An open & transparent communication process
facilitates the development of Trust amongst all
involved.
• TIMING
• Ensure that the participation process begins early
enough that all participants can have an imput

29. TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION
• Information must be presented in a non technical format and must
be easily understood by lay people
• Websites should be user-friendly
• Facebook needs regular updates
• Twitter
• Phone numbers
• Public Information days
• Publish everything
• Transparency is the order of the day

30. LISTEN
LISTEN
LISTEN
& THEN
LISTEN SOME MORE

31. SO WHAT WAS THE FEEDBACK ???

32. POTENTIAL EXAMPLES OF FEEDBACK RECEIVED ON A WIND PROJECT
• Scale and intensity of the proposed developments
• Visual intrusion in the landscape
• Noise - adequate setback distance from houses
• Infrasound - impacts on animals & children
• Turbine impacts on wildlife, especially birds & bats
• Effect on the Equine landscape
• Devaluation of property in the region
• Communities being split by wind farm development
• Queries around employment potential & community benefit
• Traffic during construction
• If we do this will we meet our targets
• Government retaining ownership of Semi-states:

33. Building the relationships with community groups
& understanding the dynamics of community gain

34. Community Gain
• Primary focus should be on local
community most immediately
impacted a development
• Concentric hierarchy 5km-10km-15km
• Community funds
• Capital contribution during project ?
• By annual contributions during project ?
• By annual contributions of fixed duration
• Linkage to project output/profitability?
• Clarity around criteria for fund access
• No individual or commercial benefit
• Flagship community projects may
receive priority consideration
• Preference that Energy Efficiency or
Sustainability projects receive support
• Management of funds by reputable
third party or jointly managed
• Administration costs should be carried
by fund
• Recognise that funding is finite to
project life
• Projects should be community driven
• Its not all about wind !!

35. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE IS KEY

36. National Economic Social Council
NESC
From Challenge to Opportunity

37. Three Components of Social Support
1

38. Three Components of Social Support
2
• An effective and inclusive process of public participation that helps to
shape and share local value:
• A genuine and open participatory process for wind energy that brings
expertise together, facilitates exploration and executes possibilities is
critical. Communities that contribute to and shape the local value of
energy are more likely to be supportive of future developments

39. Three Components of Social Support
3

40. • A National Energy Transition
• Strong local public participation
• Enabling of intermediary actors
• RECE - Renewable Energy Community Engagement process
Some critical components

41. Targeting hard to reach groups

43. Changing the mind set in the public sector

44. The Green Paper on Energy Policy in Ireland
• Recognised building societal acceptance as one of several challenges in
further deploying renewable energy.
• It invited discussion of a number of questions specifically about social
support such as:
• How can we encourage citizens to be part of our transition to future energy paths and
the policy- making process that goes with it?
• Given the scale of changes needed, what are the right mechanisms to engage
citizens?
• What formal and informal mechanisms could be used to enhance citizen engagement
with regulatory and policy decisions and how should they be structured?

45. CONCLUSIONS

47. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir