Exploring community ownership: the Black Law opportunity
The Black Law Initiative brings together Forth Development Trust and Soul of the Junction to explore whether the next chapter of a local wind farm could deliver greater, lasting benefits for the communities around it.
Our ambition is to build a wider coalition of community organisations and investigate a credible route towards community ownership or participation in repowering. We are at the beginning of that process, with substantial technical, financial and legal work ahead.
What opportunity are we exploring?
The opportunity concerns the section of Black Law Wind Farm situated on Forestry and Land Scotland’s Kingshill Plantation land. This comprises nine existing turbines with a combined capacity of 20.7 MW, within the wider wind farm operated by ScottishPower Renewables.
The current lease for this land expires in 2032. Through Forestry and Land Scotland’s Community Access to Wind Repowering pilot, eligible communities have a dedicated opportunity to develop a request to lease the repowering site before commercial tendering.
That distinction matters: the pilot offers a route to seek a lease of the land. Any future ownership of turbines, and the arrangements for developing and operating them, would need to be established separately. Requests to acquire the land itself would follow the standard Community Asset Transfer Scheme process.
Repowering could involve replacing existing turbines with newer, more efficient machines. The eventual number, size and layout would depend on detailed studies, permissions and commercial agreements.
Finding the right community model
We have not selected a final ownership or delivery model. Several possibilities need careful consideration, including direct community ownership, a joint venture or a partnership with an experienced development organisation.
Each would involve different responsibilities, funding requirements and risks. We need to understand how much control communities could retain, how the development would be financed, who would manage construction and operation, and what income might remain available for community use.
Professional advice will help the coalition assess these options and decide whether any offers a viable way forward. The legal structure must also provide clear accountability and appropriate protection for participating organisations.
Why work together?
A project of this scale needs a broad range of skills and a shared commitment over many years.
Forth Development Trust and Soul of the Junction have established the founding partnership. The intention is to widen participation so that local organisations can help shape the project, represent their communities and contribute to its governance.
Joining these early discussions means helping to investigate the opportunity. It does not commit an organisation to financing or constructing a wind farm. Those decisions would require further evidence and separate approval.
Keeping community benefit at the heart of the work
The purpose of exploring community ownership is to retain more of the long-term value generated locally.
If a viable project can be developed, future surplus income could support community facilities, services, youth programmes, wellbeing, environmental work and local regeneration. These are potential outcomes, and the scale of any benefit would depend on the project’s performance, costs and financial commitments.
The coalition would also need to agree a fair and transparent approach to distributing any future community revenue, informed by the communities represented. No distribution formula has been agreed.
What happens next?
The immediate priorities are to build the coalition, progress development funding and prepare the Note of Interest to Forestry and Land Scotland.
Alongside this, we need specialist work on grid access, land rights, environmental considerations, planning, finance and governance. Constructive engagement with ScottishPower Renewables will be important in understanding the existing infrastructure and the relationship between the FLS section and the wider wind farm.
Our working programme identifies December 2026 as the Note of Interest milestone, with the precise requirements to be confirmed with Forestry and Land Scotland. Later stages would involve a detailed asset transfer request, further assessment and negotiation, and—if the project proves viable—the necessary consents and finance.
2032 marks the current lease expiry. It is not a confirmed construction or commissioning date.
The Black Law Initiative is an opportunity to investigate what our communities could achieve together. Our task now is to build the partnership, obtain the right advice and establish whether that ambition can become a responsible, deliverable project.
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