Development trust receives government energy funding

Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust has been awarded nearly £29,500 by the Scottish Government’s Local Energy Challenge Fund to expand an innovation project currently being tested by the development trust and Hoy Energy Ltd.

The project aims to help community-owned wind turbines generate more — and to divert that extra energy towards controllable heating and electric vehicle charging devices in homes and public properties.

Residents, drivers and building owners will carry on buying all their electricity from their existing supplier, but will benefit from a rebate making the units of electricity the local system offers them cheaper.

The development trust’s project officer, Michelle Koster, said: “We are thrilled to have been selected as one of the final 17 projects to develop to a larger-scale roll out.

“This award will allow us to show, in practice, how grid-smart control of local electrical demands can ease local grid congestion, allowing community-owned generators to produce more of their own natural local energy.

“Intelligent heat demand directly provides affordable warmth and reduces fossil fuel usage in properties, whilst increasing community funds to indirectly combat the other drivers of fuel poverty.”

More on the Local Energy Challenge Fund can be found at www.localenergyscotland.org.