Expert insight on the design, implementation, and monitoring of future community benefit funds within the energy transition

Increasingly, citizen and public participation are considered central to achieving the energy transition to a low carbon future. Such participation has different dimensions in new energy infrastructure, in terms of both renewable energy installations and additional electricity grid developments. Participation includes active involvement in decision making, the ability to invest in developer-led projects, and capacity for community owned renewable energy projects. This also includes community benefit funding (CBF), whereby a local fund is established by the developer and provided to communities impacted by infrastructural developments. There is a growing body of experience with CBF, but it has not received much attention in the scientific literature. In addition, there is a paucity of analysis of the design, implementation, and evaluation of CBF schemes. This research intervention addresses this gap using a modified Delphi panel approach to explore areas of consensus and divergence on these dimensions of CBF programs. We bring together national and international experts on community benefit funding who work on key areas of relevance such as policy formation, strategy design, fund administration, and community development to deliberate on the role of CBF in supporting future developments towards energy system change. The method implemented draws out lessons learned concerning community benefit funding and insights concerning its future design, implementation, and monitoring from a range of sectors and perspectives. While participant experts within the study are made up of three groups: the public, private and academic sectors, the results have specific application in relation to CBF associated with renewable energy production whereby the financial benefit accrued is long lasting over time. This is critically important in the context of the scale of growth planned and the significant associated levels of CBF that will transfer from private funds to public good. The results highlight where there is consensus and divergence of opinion for the design, delivery, and monitoring of CBF, which can usefully inform policy deliberations as well as advancing knowledge as we see CBF growing in significance both in Ireland and internationally.