UistWind shortlisted in green energy awards

North Uist Development Company and UistWind have topped off an autumn of success with the news that the UistWind renewables project has been shortlisted for the Best Community Project Award at The Scottish Green Energy Awards.

Scottish Renewables made the official announcement recently after considering more than 100 entries.

The recognition follows a challenging development and construction journey for the Hebridean wind farm, at Criongrabhal near Clachanna-Luib in North Uist, which was officially opened on September 20.

Mustapha Hocine, chairman of North Uist Development Company (Trading) Limited, said it was always good for a small community project to be recognised for the extra effort needed by everyone to deliver it, especially after all the difficulties it had faced.

‘Congratulations goes to staff, members and directors for all the hard work and adaptability to achieve these successes,’ he said.

Other recent highlights for UistWind have been the publication of its Community Investment Plan and the welcoming of new directors at the annual general meeting.

The Community Investment Plan, detailing how the North Uist community would like to spend the benefit fund from its UistWind project once the wind farm starts generating a profit, is now online.

It sets out the spending priorities of the community as established by the community benefit survey carried out over the summer, on paper, online and also by school engagement.

In terms of investment priorities, from the survey results, the most popular topic was projects to support young people on the island.

The plan can be read online at www.uistwind.com and will be updated once the project begins to generate a profit for the benefit of the local community.