Bro Dyfi Community Renewables, the first Welsh community-owned wind energy scheme, is to seek the views of its members and local people about what direction to take in the future.

Two of the wind turbines on the ridge above the Dulas Valley, near to Machynlleth, are run by BDCR, an initiative set up in the area in 2001 as local action to displace fossil fuel use with renewable energy.

The power from the Nordtank 500kW and a Vestas 75kW machines is fed into the local distribution network.

“Not many people are aware that two of the turbines are community-owned” says chairperson Rod Edwards.

“We are now about to launch a consultation with our members on where we want to go with the organisation now we are in the second half of this endeavour. We want to know if there is an appetite for new projects, and whether we can bring new, hopefully young, energy into the organisation.”

There are over 200 members of Bro Dyfi Community Renewables Co-operative, 60 per cent of whom are based in the local area, who together invested £215,000 in the wind energy projects.

The co-op, founded in 2001, was one of the earliest community-owned renewable electricity generation projects in the UK.

Mr Edwards said: “Members of the co-operative benefit both from the environmental success of the project, which contributes to reductions in greenhouse gases, and through interest payments on their shares.

“We have invested in the wind turbines as part of a long term vision and to show that a community can sustain a project like this, despite much of the management time being voluntary with just a handful of local committee members.”

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition on Wednesday