"POWER IN OUR HANDS"

Glen Urquhart and Strathglass are becoming greener. Soirbheas is a community charity for the two glens. Soirbheas is partnering with the Girvan family (via their company Corrimony Energy) in a new wind farm consisting of five medium sized turbines to be located as shown on the map below and expected to be operational from early 2013. The community will receive the equivalent of the money generated by one turbine and this money will put the "Power in our Hands." Therefore we like to ask from you to:

• Please join the Soirbheas charity so we can seek your views on what we are planning.
• Help with your ideas and participation (we are not looking for money).
• Give us your ideas on how we approach allocation of the community's portion of revenues.

Don't miss the chance to tell us where YOU think the money the community would earn should go, being the possible projects and areas that YOU care most about.

Timeline: Planning permission was granted in November 2010 and a grid connection has been secured. Construction of the road to the site has now been completed, the cable to the power station is being laid and the turbine bases have been poured with the turbines being erected from mid October 2012 and the wind farm is due to be operational by early 2013.

Soirbheas’ role: The community will receive the funds equivalent to the income from one of the turbines. There are a number of factors that could influence the timing and amounts of payments to Soirbheas as the size of our portion will depend on the fortunes of the project as a whole, so the revenue received by us will go up and down from year to year. It is expected that the first payments from Corrimony will be received in 2014 even though the wind-farm will be operating in 2013.

Your role: We need involvement from residents - NOT money. We would like people in the community to become members of the charity (no financial investment required) so that you can influence how Soirbheas spends the money in the area. There are also opportunities to help in the development of the project and gain experience in areas of activity such as research, community engagement, and publishing.