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Support for North Uist wind farm        29/9/11

A public meeting in North Uist has expressed strong support for a community-run wind energy project, which promises to deliver revenue of at least £4m over 20 years to support community projects in the island.

The two-turbine 1.8MW project, to be situated near Clachan, is being driven by North Uist Development Company, and last week’s meeting in Carinish Hall was an opportunity to seek input to the project from local residents and crofters.

The thirty people who attended the meeting heard Robert Fraser of NUDC describe the benefits which will accrue to the community from this project. A  show of hands at the meeting expressed unanimous support to press ahead with the development.

“We envisage an annual income of £164,000 in the first 15 years of operation, rising to £357,000 in years 15 to 20,” he said, “and these are cautious figures which, based on what other similar projects are achieving elsewhere in Scotland, we would reasonably hope to exceed.”

The Development Company’s plan is to set up a separate body, comprising elected representatives, who would make decisions on funding priorities and which projects to support, as is common practice with other similar community renewable energy projects.

The main obstacle facing the project, as with every other community or commercial renewable project in the islands, is the limited capacity in the grid. NUDC is currently in discussion with various parties, including SSE, in an attempt to ensure that sufficient capacity is released in the distribution network to allow the North Uist project to progress.

NUDC is optimistic that this obstacle can be overcome and already has a “non firm” offer of capacity in the grid. Furthermore it has already carried out significant work towards developing the project. This includes a scoping exercise, bird survey, otter survey and an archaeology survey, which is about to get underway. So far none of these have shown up any particular problems which would affect the viability of the project and currently discussions are underway with the North Uist Estate and local crofters to draw up a mutually beneficial rental agreement relating to the small amount of land and access required for the development.

It is expected that these discussions will be concluded in the next few months and that a met mast will be erected, which will establish a year’s worth of wind data from the site prior to the project progressing.

“This is a longterm project,” says Robert Fraser, “but we believe that the benefits to the community will be considerable. The body that makes funding decisions will be independent of NUDC and will be democratically elected, but the priorities that we would like to see benefit from the projected income range from a marina to the Cleitreval viewpoint and from support for local producers and services to support for community halls and facilities. This is a project for the whole community and we do believe it is achievable.”