Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Sadness as community hydro project winds up after ten years

Golspie hydro scheme site
Golspie hydro scheme site

A ten-year campaign to build a small hydro scheme which could have generated £130,000 a year for a Highland community has finally ran out of power.

The Big Burn Hydro Development received £140,000 of public money to build a sustainable source of renewable energy in Golspie.

However, Golspie Community Power (GCP), set up in 2010 to develop the plans, has been closed and arrangements are now being made to wind up the project.

In a letter to members, chairman John Ford said the charity’s board is “very sad that 10 years of effort has been in vain”.

GCP says a decision by SSE to cut the size of an agreed grid connection halved potential income from the scheme and made it unviable.

The group later unsuccessfully tried to find ways to make the scheme work on a smaller scale.

Former project manager Gordon Robertson said: “This is a clear case of SSE destroying a viable community scheme. It was heart breaking. It was a ruthless decision and they would not budge.”

The project for a 100kw scheme received £140,000 from the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme. It gained planning permission in 2014 and GCP paid more than £40,000 for a grid connection.

Mr Robertson said attractive Feed in Tariff payments at the time would have brought in an expected annual gross income of £130,000. However, as construction tendering was to start, SSE said it could only offer a 50kW connection due to grid constraints.

He said after the “body blow” funders could not be found. He added: “The overriding feeling is of sadness. The funds generated would have created jobs, environmental improvements, apprenticeships, new businesses, educational opportunities, all abilities path improvements and so much more.”

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP Jamie Stone is to seek a meeting with SSE: “This is most unfortunate. This sad move flies in the face of trying to generate carbon neutral energy by a community and for a community.”

A spokeswoman for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said: “We have worked with Golspie Community Power for a number of years in relation to their connection request which is located in a part of the electricity network that is constrained in capacity.

“We have maintained an ongoing dialogue, provided updates and explored a number of options to support and assist them with their connection.

“Whilst we understand Golspie Community Power’s request for us to expedite this connection, as a Distribution Network Operator we are obligated to operate within our licence conditions as set out by the regulator, Ofgem.

“Our licence does not allow us to deviate beyond these conditions to afford any project priority over another.”