Community fund if project is successful

I am heartened that so many residents have engaged with us and I am glad that we were able to reassure them and provide peace of mind with our answers. We place a great deal of emphasis on our relationwith the local community which is why we have undertaken extensive consultation to date prior to submitting our application and have visited each house in the immediate area twicesince June this year.

However, I fully appreciate that we will not be able to please all of the people all of the time. Since the public exhibitions we have provided follow up information to a number of residents and we are happy to continue this engagement. Where people have concerns that cannot be addressed we have responded with clear and transparent information on the proposals.

We believe this project will not only bring benefits to the local area in terms of investment and the creation of renewable energy to the betterment of our environment, but if successful we will also be introducing a community fund which will provide considerable financial support to local groups and organisations. We plan to engage further with the local community regarding this community fund.

The value of the fund will depend on the eventual capacity of the wind farm. Based on the current 9 turbine proposal, this could equate to a fund of 36,000 per year for the lifetime of the wind farm.

Similar schemes for our other existing wind farms, including that at Gruig, have resulted in funding being provided to community organisations in the nearby villages of Corkey, Cloughmills and Loughgiel.

RES will be submitting a planning application for the wind farm in the coming weeks.

The application will be accompanied by a full Environmental Statement, which examines the potential effects of the proposals on a variety of subjects, including landscape and visual amenity; acoustics; ecology; archaeology; socio-economics; health and safety; infrastructure, roads and hydrology.

We will keep the local community updated about when the planning application is submitted, and reference copies of the Environmental Statement will be freely available for viewing in local

venues.

People wishing to find out more about the proposals can contact me on 028 2826 3320 or email [email protected]".

The proposed wind farm has an indicative installed capacity of 18 megawatts, which will generate clean, renewable power equivalent to the annual electricity demand of an estimated 10,000 homes a year, reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of a low-carbon fuel source and bring economic benefits to the area.

The value of the community fund is set at 2000 per megawatt of installed capacity, per year.

The current 9 turbine proposal has an indicative installed capacity of 18 megawatts, which would equate to a fund of 36,000 per year. The community fund would begin when the wind farm becomes operational and last for the lifetime of the project.

Public exhibitions for the proposed Altaveedan Wind Farm, near Loughguile, took place in the Millennium Centre, as advertised in the local press, on 21 & 22 September.

Local residents and community groups were also notified directly.

The exhibitions provided the public with detailed information on the environmental and technical studies which have been undertaken, and offered a further opportunity for visitors to

discuss the project, ask questions and provide feedback.

The proposal is for up to nine turbines, with a maximum height of 101.2m from base to blade tip, in the townlands of Altaveedan North, Altaveedan South, Aldorough and Shelton South, approximately two kilometres east of Loughguile.

RES is a leading renewable energy project developer with operations across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

RES has been at the forefront of wind energy development since the 1970s and has developed and/or built more than 4.7GW of wind energy capacity worldwide, including 13 operating wind farms in Northern Ireland (Corkey, Rigged Hill, Elliott's Hill, Lendrum's Bridge Phases 1 and 2, Altahullion Phases 1 and 2, Callagheen, Lough Hill, Wolf Bog, Slieve Divena, Gruig and Hunter's Hill).

The RES Group is active in a range of renewable energy technologies, including large-scale solar and biomass and on-site heat, power and cooling technologies, as well as offering design consultancy for sustainable built environments. For more information, visit www.res-group.com