NOW THAT IS A GOOD IDEA...

A community beneficial project!

As I have said before, and no doubt will say again, what may work in Scotland may not necessarily work in Wales. That said every now and then something interesting emerges from Scotland which could work exceptionally well here in Wales. There is a scheme to build a hydro power generator in the Pentland Hills. So what you might say? Well this is different as the project has a significant community beneficial element which could benefit local people within an urban area. A  group of investors in Edinburgh  met to discuss building a hydro power generator in the Pentland Hills. They want to install hydro power at the first outlet from the Harlaw Reservoir. The scheme, known as Harlaw Hydro would be the first urban micro hydro project to be community owned in the Edinburgh area. The hope is to create a community benefit co-op and to encourage people to buy shares in it. Basically investors would get a capital return through the feed-in tariff and any surplus cash would be fed back in to the community through the Balerno Village Trust. Now that is a concept would work exceptionally well here in Wales, in the valleys and elsewhere bringing real benefits to some of our communities.