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.

Chilean government looks to Western Isles for windfarm advice

Beinn Ghrideag — Point and Sandwick Trust’s existing community-owned wind farm just outside Stornoway
Beinn Ghrideag — Point and Sandwick Trust’s existing community-owned wind farm just outside Stornoway

A representative from the Ministry of Energy in Chile has been seeking advice on windfarms from a group on the isle of Lewis.

Chilean community energy co-ordinator Francisco Merino Jofre met recently with Point and Sandwick Trust members to learn from their experience in building Beinn Ghrideag, the biggest community windfarm in the UK, so that Chile can develop its community energy sector.

He spoke to windfarm developer Calum MacDonald and trust general manager Donald John MacSween, chairman Norman Mackenzie and honorary president Angus McCormack.

In particular, Mr Jofre received advice from Mr MacDonald about how to begin persuading commercial lenders to invest in community projects.

Chile has a number of community-owned renewables projects in development – in solar, wind and hydro power – but these projects, although fully consented, are unable to proceed because they cannot get finance, due to a perception that community projects are higher risk.

Mr MacDonald, who secured the £13million finance for Beinn Ghrideag before the financial model existed for banks to invest in community groups, provided several key contacts in banking which should help the Chilean government to make a breakthrough and create a financial system for community projects.

He said: “It was a great pleasure and honour to host Francisco at Point and Sandwick.

“We learned about the power of community energy from pioneering projects in places like Denmark and Germany where almost 50 per cent of all the turbines are now community owned.

“So it’s extremely satisfying as a Scottish community wind farm to think that we’re now passing on some of these lessons onto our colleagues in Chile and it’s very inspiring to think that there are rural communities in the remote parts of Chile that could be taking a lead from what we have achieved in the Western Isles.

“I think we do have lessons to teach and it’s really gratifying that there are people reaching out from as far away as Chile to learn more about what we’ve done.”