The project will be constructed on the Allt Achadh na Moine watercourse in the Garmony Forest on the Isle of Mull and will be supported by a loan from the Charity Bank, an ethical bank that lends solely to social sector organisations. The 400 KW small-scale hydro scheme is scheduled to open in spring 2015 on a 40-year lease under the Forestry Commission Scotland’s National Forest Land Scheme. It is expected to generate more than 1,000 MWh of electricity per year, enough to power 280 homes, and will reduce the island’s carbon footprint by 450 tonnes.
Green Energy Mull (GEM) is an Industrial and Provident Society operating as a Community Benefit Company. It was formed by Sustainable Mull & Iona and Mull & Iona Community Trust to ensure that the assets will be used for the benefit of the community. All net profits from the scheme will be invested in the local community.
GEM will be using the Pelton Wheel technology which has been successfully used in similar projects in Scotland, rather than the Archimedes Screw technology employed by many of Charity bank’s existing hydro scheme borrowers. The Pelton Wheel was invented in the 1870s by LA Pelton and is the preferred turbine for hydro schemes where the available water source has relatively high hydraulic head at low flow rates. Its main advantage is that more power can be extracted from a water source with high pressure and low flow than from a source with low pressure and high flow, even when the two flows theoretically contain the same power. The inverse Archimedes Screw is better suited to a low head and a steady flow. The combination of high head and variable flows at Garmony make the Pelton Wheel an ideal technological solution for the project.
The total cost will be over £1 million, £450,000 of which has been raised through a community share offer. Charity Bank has agreed to lend £500,000 and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF), which is administered by Scottish Enterprise on behalf of the Scottish Government, is lending £443,000. The loans will also be used to repay existing loans that have funded development costs. Income will come from electricity sales and Feed in Tariffs (FiTs), with profits being invested entirely within the communities of Mull and Iona.
“The Garmony Hydro Project is an impressive venture – with the ability to power 280 homes once complete – and will be a real asset to the Isle of Mull” said Derek Mackay MSP, and Scottish Government Islands Minister. “Through Green Energy Mull, it is estimated that over the first 20 years of the life of the project, the scheme will generate a turnover of over £5 million, with nett proceeds of up to £2.4 million going into the Waterfall Fund for a variety of projects that will benefit the community.”
Mr Mackay added that the Scottish Government is defining a distinctive approach to Scotland’s future energy provision by putting communities at the heart of decisions about their local energy system and empowering them to take an economic stake in new developments.
The loan to GEM is Charity Bank’s first to a community renewable energy scheme in Scotland and the bank is hoping to fund similar initiatives in the future. It has already supported renewable energy schemes in the North of England, such as Heron Corn Mill in Cumbria, Settle Hydro and the River Brain Hydro project in Yorkshire.
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