Cairndow’s Here We Are Centre strikes gold again with proposed local hydro scheme for Our Power

Cairndow’s Our Power, affiliated to the Here We Are Centre (HWA) has already been hitting the headlines for its success with its first renewable energy scheme, a community-owner biomass energy generation scheme.

It has now had more success, winning the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) prize of £5,000 at Social Enterprise Network Scotland’s (Senscot) ceilidh earlier this month. The event had a ‘Dragon’s Den‘ format and the Our Power presentation was agreed to have been so good that it carried the day – or the night – without question.

While £5,000 is little more than a start on the road to the proposal local hydro project, it’s an important start, recognising the worth of the project to the comunity – and it’s great for morale.

HWA is in the midst of a feasibility study for hte project. Around £25,000′s worth of work has already been done o on the feasibility of the chosen site for the hydro-technology proposal. The intention is to set up a partnership with Energy Scotland, the Argyll-based hydro-company, to secure the funding for this stage of development. The project hopes to be operational in 4-5 year’s time.