Benefits for the community
Discover the social, economic, and environmental benefits of Kype Muir Wind Farm.


Community benefits
Creating community value together
We establish community funds for every OnPath Energy project to ensure that the benefits are channeled back into the local community. Kype Muir Wind Farm, together with the Kype Muir Extension, provide the local community with a range of benefits including:
– £21.1 million into a local community fund over the lifespan of the wind farm
– £159 million investment in the local economy
– 800 jobs directly or indirectly supported
– £1.3 million skills and training fund for the first five years, supporting almost 700 people locally


Kype Muir Community Panel (KMCP)
Increased benefits when combined with Kype Muir Extension
The Kype Muir Community Fund provides around £442,000 annually to benefit community groups within 10 kilometres of the Kype Muir Wind Farm and Extension. The fund supports a wide range of community needs, from community buildings to local art installations to helping to drive local grassroots projects. The fund also includes an initiative to help provide jobs and apprenticeships in the local area.
To ensure the communities and their relative needs are fully represented when allocating grants, the Kype Muir Community Partnership (KMCP) manages the fund.
As a result of the Kype Muir Extension, we can increase the benefits for the local communities. The new offer for the combined Kype Muir and Kype Muir Extension developments is supported by the following financial commitments:
- Increase in the communities share of gross revenues from 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent
- Guaranteed minimum of £5,000 per MW per annum
The increase to 2.5% of the revenue of the combined Kype Muir and Kype Muir Extension developments is expected to deliver £32 million of funds to local communities over the lifecycle of the projects. In order to deliver this overall package the Kype Muir Extension partnering proposal will be as follows:
- Gross Revenue share of 4% delivering £20,000,000, taking the combined revenue share of the Kype projects to £32,000,000.
- Underwritten by a guaranteed minimum of £5,000 per MW per annum which equates to £7,600,000 over the project’s lifecycle.
Apply for a grant
Community benefit fund
When applying to our Kype Muir fund, you should always talk to your local community council who will be able to support you through the process and offer their guidance on shaping your project.
The Kype Muir Community Partnership covers five different areas, and you can find contact details for each of them in the guidelines below.
Please read the fund guidelines before completing an expression of interest (EOI) form and submitting it to the email address below.
Tel: 0191 378 6342
Email: apply@onpathcommunityfund.co.uk
For more information, you can also visit the Point North website.
Supporting local businesses
Seeing the bigger picture
As part of our commitment to local businesses, wherever possible, we invite local suppliers to tender for work on our projects. During the construction of Kype Muir Wind Farm, over 80% of the contracts were sourced locally.
If you’d like your company to get involved with any of our current renewables developments,, we’d like to hear from you.
Nature and the environment
Think people and planet
Find out how Kype Muir Wind Farm and the Extension benefit local nature, wildlife and biodiversity.
Improving biodiversity
Caring for the environment
Our project team starts thinking about how a project interacts with its environment at the very outset. We undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment to guide the design process and conduct detailed wildlife and bird studies of the site (among other studies) and commission external experts to analyse the data. This helps us understand the local wildlife and how we can build benefits into our designs that support and enhance local nature and biodiversity.
At Kype Muir, through a targeted process of rewetting, we have restored 28.16 hectares of peatland at. We have also developed 570 hectares of habitat around the site, with a key aim of promoting the numbers of critically endangered black grouse – the fastest declining bird in the UK according to the RSPB.
The pre-existing coniferous forestry at the site had low levels of biodiversity. Our habitat management plan aimed to significantly enhance this, creating a balance between replacement woodland planting; protections and enhancement of priority species; and the creation and connectivity of priority habitats.
Helping communities connect with nature
Responding to a strong community request to make the local environment and nature more accessible, we’re creating up to 26 km of new forest tracks throughout the site together with new recreational opportunities.