Back our Energyshare bid to boost community power

 A unique partnership between two Edinburgh community groups has been established to develop a community owned wind turbine on the coast between Portobello and Leith.

PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town and Greener Leith have joined forces to conduct detailed feasibility work on a site within the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works. Early surveys suggest a wind turbine on this site has the potential to generate enough renewable energy to supply the annual electricity needs of 300 - 1300 households, depending on the size of turbine installed.

The generator would be the first community-owned urban wind turbine in Scotland.

The project would see substantial sums raised for local community projects over the lifetime of the project. The two groups have now launched a campaign to raise funding to develop the project, and are urging local residents to help win funding by supporting a bid to the Energyshare Fund.

The projects with the most supporters on the Energyshare website have the greatest chance of winning funding. Therefore, both community groups are urging Edinburgh residents to register their support on the Energyshare website before the 30th June at:

http://tiny.cc/porty-leith-wind

Jane Lewis, Chair of PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town said:

“"We have been working hard to find suitable renewable energy projects that will deliver carbon savings, a long-term source of funding for local community projects, and also provide a visible demonstration of the renewable resources to be found locally. We think this proposal has real promise, and we’re asking for community support to take it forward.”

Charlotte Encombe, Chair of Greener Leith said:

"This project could create a community fund to help thousands of local people for many years into the future. Whilst there's still a lot of work to do before the project gets the final green light, we hope that the proposed wind turbine will become a landmark and a source of local pride, as well as power.”

Kenny MacAskill, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern said,

“I fully support this excellent proposal from Pedal and Greener Leith which chimes well with our national moves to develop Scotland as the Green Energy Powerhouse of Europe, and to encourage community ownership of renewables. I’m pleased to hear that Pedal will be seeking local residents’ views.”
 

 Everybody is quite clear that the project will only be able to go ahead with the backing of local residents, and many details of the project remain to be worked out, including the size of the turbine, the way any financial surplus is distributed from the project, and what types of activities the money would be used to fund.

 

The images above illustrate what the turbine would look like if the largest feasible turbine was supported by the public. You can see a larger version of the images by clicking on them.

We should add that these images are just to give you an idea of what the turbine would look like and the final appearance could vary depending upon the outcome of the public consultation process that we intend to announce shortly.

You can find out more details about the project in this Frequently Asked Questions document that we have prepared:

Portobello & Leith Community Wind Energy Project FAQ Final

Lastly, you may think that building a community owned wind turbine is an off the wall idea that could never happen. Well you may be surprised to learn that this week, the first ever community owned wind turbine project on mainland Scotland is about to start generating power, after five years work by local volunteers in the Aberdeenshire area of Udny.

Alastair Tibbitt from Greener Leith managed to catch up with two of those volunteers, Brian MacDougall and Mike MacDonald, after they'd been speaking at a meeting on energy policy called by Friends of the Earth Scotland. They shared their thoughts on their five year journey from idea to turbine construction in an audio interview that you can listen to below: 

Would you like to get involved in helping to develop a community wind turbine project at Seafield? The first thing you need to do is back our bid on the Energyshare website here: http://tiny.cc/porty-leith-wind