Airtricity presents £60,000 to community projects in the vicinity of Bin Mountain, Tappaghan and Bessy Bell Wind Farms

SSE Airtricity has presented over £60,000 in Community Funding to 13 community groups in the vicinity of the Bessy Bell, Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Wind Farms in Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh. The presentation of the 2013 Community Funding Awards took place at the Mellon Country Hotel, Omagh, Co. Tyrone.

Since 2006, £300,000 has been paid out from the Bessy Bell, Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Community Funds towards local energy efficiency and sustainability projects around each of the wind farms. This year’s presentation brings the total wind farm community fund investment into local groups and organisations in Co. Fermanagh and Co. Tyrone to more than £360,000.

This year groups being supported from the Bessy Bell, Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Community Funds include Scraghey and District Community Development Association, Dunclamp Parish Church Hall, Two Castles Boxing Club, Aghyaran St. Davog’s Gaelic Football Club and Castlederg St. Eugene’s Gaelic Athletic Club among others. Local projects being supported include innovative energy-efficiency schemes which will help local groups and organisations to reduce their energy use, cut their energy costs and lower their carbon footprint.

This is the first year that SSE Airtricity is presenting community funding awards to local groups from the Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Wind Farms on behalf of Greencoat Capital, a renewable energy and energy efficiency investment firm in which SSE is a founding investor. This follows the transfer of ownership of both wind farms from SSE to Greencoat Capital earlier this year. Both companies have agreed that SSE Airtricity will present the Community Funds for Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Wind Farms on behalf of Greencoat Capital in line with the existing application process and alongside SSE’s Community Fund for the Bessy Bell Wind Farm.

Anne Reynolds, SSE Airtricity Community Development Officer, commented:

“Alongside our presentation of Community Funding from our Bessy Bell Wind Farm, we’re delighted at SSE Airtricity to be presenting Community Funds from Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Wind Farms on behalf of Greencoat Capital. At SSE Airtricity and at Greencoat Capital we believe it’s important that communities should see the ongoing benefit of community funding from the wind farms that they are hosting in the region, so we’re extremely pleased to be presenting £60,000 in funding from the three wind farms to such a wide variety of forward-thinking and innovative local projects in both Co. Tyrone and Co. Fermanagh. We’re also very pleased to have been joined for this year’s presentation by Jimmy Hansson, Operations Director of Greencoat Capital, to mark this new partnership between our two companies.

“By helping communities each year to make major strides towards reducing their energy consumption, cutting their energy costs and lowering their carbon footprint we can not only help communities to become greener and more sustainable but we can also demonstrate the real benefits that communities can realise by living and working in areas with a strong renewable energy resource. In this way we can all see the full potential of renewable energy for local communities, the economy and wider society.”

Sean Corry, Development Manager at the Two Castles Boxing Club, said:

“The Two Castles Boxing Club has benefitted greatly this year from support from the SSE Airtricity Community Fund. The £15,000 we have received will go towards installing new energy efficient lighting throughout the sports hall, as well a state-of-the-art heating panel system, helping us to reduce the current high energy costs of the sports hall.”

Chris McLaughlin, Development Officer, Castlederg St. Eugene’s Gaelic Athletic Club,said:

“Everyone involved with the Castlederg GAC is delighted with the funding we’ve received through the SSE Airtricity Community Fund. The financial support means we have been able to install a brand new energy efficient lighting system for the outdoor pitch, meaning club members can continue to train into the darker evenings.”

Gerard Byrne, Chairman, Aghyaran St. Davog’s Gaelic Football Club, said:

“Our clubhouse was built in the late 1980s and is enjoyed by up to 400 users from a variety of bodies such as sporting and community groups, schools, youth and women's groups. One of our main costs is heating the facility. We conducted an energy audit which showed that our heating system, which has had three breakdowns in the space of nine months, is totally inefficient and is at the end of its life after nearly 25 years service.

“The funding we’ve received from SSE Airtricity towards the installation of a new energy efficient heating system will help save more than 35% on our heating bill which will be a significant saving to our club in monetary terms, and of course it will eradicate the ongoing problems we are encountering with the existing heating system breaking down on a regular basis.”

In addition to Community Fund benefits, investment in renewable energy presents an unparalleled opportunity to act as a leading economic stimulus locally and nationally in terms of construction jobs and materials, professional services and through local income in the form of local authority rates and landowner rental payments.

SSE owns and operates the 14MW Bessy Bell Wind Farm, and operates the combined 37.5MW Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Wind Farms on behalf of renewable energy and energy efficiency investment firm Greencoat Capital. Combined, the Bin Mountain, Tappaghan and Bessy Bell Wind Farms produce enough electricity to power over 41,000† homes. The green energy generated at each wind farms powers Airtricity, Northern Ireland’s second largest energy provider, and is helping to ensure that Northern Ireland meets its targets of 40% electricity generation from renewables by 2020 and the EU’s mandatory 20% reduction in carbon emissions.

†Homes powered calculation based on typical annual consumption of 3,300kWh (Utility Regulator Transparency Report, Aug 2013) and 1 year average recorded capacity factor for wind farms operated by SSE in Northern Ireland, April 2012-March 2013. Historic figures quoted are for guideline purposes only – actual future performance may vary.

Projects being supported by SSE Airtricity’s 2013 Community Fund for Bessy Bell, Bin Mountain and Tappaghan Wind Farms include:

-       new energy efficient lighting for Colaghty Parish Church;

-       a state of the art energy efficient pitch lighting system at Marius McHugh Park;

-       a new energy efficient heating system for Aghyaran St Davog’s GAA Club;

-       the installation of energy efficient lighting at the First Steps Children’s Centre;

-       replacement energy efficient doors at McGirr Park Club House;

-       new attic insulation at Drumquin Orange Hall;

-       new energy efficient lighting and the installation of energy efficient panel heaters at the Old Townhall Building, Newtownstewart;

-       funding for a natural environmental and creative arts programme for the Pushkin Trust;

-       new loft insulation at the Ardstraw Practice Hall;

-       a contribution towards a new heating system and energy efficient lights and windows at Dunclamp Parish Church Hall;

-       new cavity wall insulation at St Columba’s Church Hall; and

-       energy efficient lighting at Clanabogan Parish Church.