Rasaay Development Trust (RDT) has been working with Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) to help keep a renewable energy scheme on the island on track.
The Inverarish hydro scheme is the first application of its kind to FLS’s Community Asset Transfer Scheme in order to build and operate a community owned ‘run-of-river’ hydro scheme.
To secure a feed-in tariff for providing power to the National Grid, the scheme has to be operational by Sept 2021.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions the community is having to make some “major adjustments” to its plans to meet the deadline, including working with FLS to reschedule some harvesting work.
RDT chair Iain Ross said: “Sustainable energy solutions will help us tackle fuel poverty on the island and strengthen our continuity of supply while helping us fulfil our commitment to safeguard our environment for future generations.
“The hydro scheme will improve the resilience of our community, giving us access to power, reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels and establishing a small income stream that can fund other projects and contribute to a community benefit fund.
“In this initiative RDT is being supported and funded by Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) and private match funding (Community Benefit Grant) which has also been secured for the project.
“We have now received planning permission, have the necessary CAR licence from SEPA, are pre-accredited with Ofgem and have a valid grid offer from SSEN.
“The current Covid-19 restrictions have meant some re-arranging and fine tuning of timescales, but we believe that we can quickly build momentum when things return to something near normality. We believe this is only a pause and minor inconvenience considering the longer-term sustainability benefits this project will deliver for the island.”
The renewable energy scheme sits within RDT’s five-year development plan.
Forestry and Land Scotland north region manager Graeme Prest said: “Covid-19 restrictions meant we all had to have a bit of a re-think, both to make the necessary adjustments, and to assess what could be done to keep the project moving forward and be ready to get cracking once restrictions ease.
“We’ve made alterations to our proposed felling works to align them with RDT’s plans so that construction can go ahead as soon as possible in line with Scottish Government guidelines and still meet the FiTs deadline.”