Upcoming Webinar to Shine Light on Role of Community Benefit Agreements in Wind Energy Development

Feb. 6, 2024

An overhead view of people sitting around a table with their laptops, two shaking hands.

Wind energy project developers sometimes use voluntary mechanisms called community benefit agreements to ensure wind energy projects deliver benefits to the communities that host them. Photo from Fauxels, Pexels

Wind energy plants offer a variety of benefits to the communities neighboring the turbines. These benefits can take many forms, including tax revenues, supply chain and manufacturing activities, and job creation. Wind energy project developers can also offer community benefit agreements (CBAs) and related funds and investments, which serve as voluntary mechanisms to provide additional financial and/or non-financial benefits for communities impacted by wind energy projects. CBAs and similar mechanisms are currently the subject of much attention and discussion in the renewable energy field, particularly regarding offshore wind development and equity.

Join WINDExchange and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, at 1 p.m. ET, for a webinar that will introduce CBAs and related funds and investments.

Following the structure of WINDExchange’s Wind Energy Community Benefits Guide and giving attention to land-based wind energy, offshore wind energy, and other renewable energy technologies, the webinar will explore the nuances of community benefits from multiple angles, including:

  • Various definitions and interpretations of community benefits

  • Forms that community benefits may take and/or mechanisms that developers may use

  • Processes that communities may be involved in

  • The relationship between CBAs and energy equity and justice

  • NREL’s research and engagement efforts around this topic.

The webinar will include a presentation from Max Jabrixio, founder of Max Engagement, who will discuss his on-the-ground experience developing CBAs for wind projects, as well as another speaker and a Q&A session.

Missed the webinar? Watch the recording on the WINDExchange playlist on YouTube and follow along in the presentation!