We tilt for communities

We are proud to win the Clean Energy Council's 2020 Community Engagement Award for our extensive benefit sharing plan at the Dundonnell Wind Farm.

The plan included the installation of a mini-grid, a road safety fund, support for local not-for-profit organisations, mental health providers and education funding for residents. In addition to maintaining Tilt Renewables’ social licence in the region, the plan will create a lasting legacy by helping the prevention of suicide, supporting vulnerable communities and creating educational opportunities.

The development and construction phases always represent the largest expenditure and provide more frequent opportunity to interact with the community.

Getting it right with the community during the initial planning phase is critical and a key focus for Tilt Renewables.  We have been in some communities for nearly 20 years - we understand what needs to be done.

This phase involves many people and the project team has a large presence in the community

Tilt Renewables encourages construction partners to procure resources, including labour, materials, transport, accommodation and food, as much as possible from the local community.  This both engages the community and is more efficient in terms of project delivery.

Some components of the project will need to be imported, for example a suitable large crane may not be available locally.

During the construction phase, it is often possible to gain support of civil construction and other project delivery partners to use their equipment and expertise to contribute to local community projects. 

An example of this is the construction of the skate park in the centre of Snowtown, providing a safe recreational option for the local kids.  This was sponsored and constructed by Catcon, the civil construction contractor for the Snowtown Stage 2 project.

We have examples from each of our assets of how we support communities over the long term.  Each community is different and therefore so is each support program.

These range from scholarships to 'lend a hand' programs and in total we budget more than $300,000 dollars each year to community and environmental initiatives.

In addition, our landowners receive more than $3.4M in rental payments.

Examples of our initiatives are:

• Lend-a-Hand foundation at Snowtown
• Support for the Country Fire Service
• Sponsorship of local school events
• Wind farm open days
• Sponsorship of sporting events at the wind farms
• Sponsorship of horse show jumping events

Local club, school and community sponsorships, native vegetation planting and cultural heritage initiatives, as well as coordination with the local emergency services have all enabled us to gain a genuine understanding of our communities and how we can best work alongside them.