This article explores the role of a Danish community benefit scheme in promoting local acceptance of wind energy projects and discusses the role of regulation. The paper presents findings, obtained from qualitative focus groups and interviews with local citizens in three wind energy projects. The analysis shows that the local citizens were ambivalent about the scheme. The community projects generally were perceived positively, but a number of critical reactions to the scheme were also identified. The categories into which local concerns fell were: bribery, legitimacy and administration of the schemes. A key finding was that some local citizens dismissed the scheme as inappropriate to address and redress the adverse impacts related to the wind project. Overall, the many challenges identified indicate that the Danish scheme failed to boost local acceptance. It was also evident from the Danish experience that a regulatory framework does not in itself address key concerns such as bribery as has been suggested in the literature on non-regulatory developer-led schemes in the UK. The findings raise questions about the effectiveness of community benefits as compensation tools aiming to promote local acceptance. A future role of such schemes in fair and equitable benefit-sharing is discussed.