Dalavich hydro scheme secures new investors

A hydro scheme run by a micro community in Dalavich has pulled in more than £50,000 of shares in just three weeks.

It needs £500,000 of investment ultimately to keep the scheme running for future generations and is now offering shares outside the community.

The offer has made an appearance in the Friends of the Earth newsletter and representatives from Awesome Energy (Dalriada)’s (AED) board of directors, who run the company, got lots of interest when they attended this year’s Good Money Week conference in Edinburgh promoting sustainable and ethical opportunities for investment.

Income from energy produced will be ploughed back into community projects once the build and infrastructure costs are paid back.

AED launched its latest share offer on September 8 and, 21 days later, had secured £54,900 of investment from existing shareholders and the community that also takes in nearby Kilchrenan, Kilmaha and Inverinan.

In September, the hydro saw its largest generation figures since it was commissioned in February rising to 168,784kWh; the previous best was February with 150,128kWh.

‘This performance was forecast by the team of experts who were brought in at the beginning of the project to map out best and worst case scenarios for the project,’ said AED spokesperson Samantha Marshall.

‘A recent calculation carried out by Awesome Energy shows that this has saved 48Kg of CO2 from entering the atmosphere in the first nine months of production – the community is very proud of this achievement,’ added Ms Marshall.

Innogy Renewables UK made full grid connection possible by providing AED with free access to its grid capacity at its nearby Braevallich hydro power station, without which support AED would not be able to operate.

Ms Marshall said: ‘This is a small community which had a dream, which it has turned into reality.’

To find out more go to awesome-energy.com/shareholders.html