More than 75% of the population of the Western Isles live on community owned land which has been made possible through land reform developments over the last 20 years. This has been significant to these communities where landownership is not just symbolic, but also helping these communities develop financially sustainable estate management. During the last 20 years a number of these communities have developed renewable energy projects to help generate a solid income source for their local area.

There are good examples from Uist and Barra in particular.

In 2006 South Uist Estate was purchased by the community with the ambition of turning this loss making estate into a sustainable business by developing a small scale wind farm which would help support the estate operation and also provide funding to inject into other business and community development.

In its first 10 years of community ownership, the community company Storas Uibhist not only delivered a 6.9MW wind farm, but has also build a £10m marina at Lochboisdale, restored the Tom Morris golf course at Askernish, and undertaken other land management projects such as drainage restoration and released land for housing.

The wind farm was completed in 2013 at a capital cost of £10m funded by some grants but primarily commercial loans. The project returns profits of between £800,000 - £1,000,000 per year to the community to invest in the estate itself and to also support community projects.

Other examples can be found on Barra and North Uist which are not on community owned land, but the community have negotiated with the landowner to lease some land on which to build turbines.

On Barra a 0.9MW turbine was completed in 2014 at a capital cost of £2.2m funded by commercial loans. This project returns £240,000 - £330,000 per annum to the community company and local organisations.