Soirbheas News

Soirbheas AGM – 21st June

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:22:26 +0000

Advance notice that the charity’s annual general meeting will be on the 21st June.

New website for those who want to Grow their Own

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:20:38 +0000

Grow Your Own Scotland is an initiative which seeks to create a single resource for all grow your own and greenspace organisations throughout Scotland. They have launched a new website – www.growyourownscotland.info – which gathers together useful information for those looking to grow their own, including case studies, news and links to funding.

Next meeting – 7.30pm Thurs. 31st May – Balnain Community Hall

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:35:14 +0000

The next Soirbheas Steering Committee meeting will be on Thursday 31st May at 7.30pm at Balnain Community Hall. All members (or those interested in becoming members of the charity) most welcome to attend.

Steering Group – Thurs. 26th April 7.30pm Blairbeg Hall, Drumnadrochit

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:06:42 +0000

The monthly steering group is taking place, as previously advised, Thursday 26th April, 7.30pm at Blairbeg Hall in Drumnadrochit. All members welcome (or those interested in joining). Financial close with Corrimony Energy is hopefully taking place in the next week or two which will be a huge milestone.

Steering Group – 29th March Blairbeg Hall, Drum. 7.30pm

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:56:39 +0000

Soirbheas and Corrimony Energy are hoping to finalise the financing of the whole project in the next few weeks so this is a crucial phase. All members (and prospective members) welcome To Thursday’s meeting at Blairbeg Hall, Drumnadrochit – Soirbheas is also keen to involve more people from the community so please come along or contact us if you are interested.

Soirbheas attend Highland Environmental Network Conference

admin — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:49:18 +0000

On Saturday March 24th, Soirbheas attended the HEN conference in Drumnadrochit. There were a number of talks and some interesting workshops including ones on tackling fuel poverty and using thermal imaging cameras to assess where houses are losing most heat.

Soirbheas attend Cross Party Group discussing a low carbon economy

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:43:47 +0000

Tanya Castell, Chair of Soirbheas, attended the Cross Party Group on Rural Policy discussion at Holyrood on Wednesday 7th March on a low carbon rural economy. This provided a number of ideas on how Soirbheas could meet its objectives once the windfarm is generating income for the community.

The agenda, presentations and unapproved minutes of the meeting are available on the Group’s website at: http://www.sac.ac.uk/ruralpolicycentre/xpgruralpolicy/ (please copy and paste url).

Next Soirbheas meetings – 29th March, 26th April & 31st May

admin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:54:48 +0000

The dates of the next meetings have been set as noted above – on the 29th March the meeting will be at Blairbeg Hall, Drumnadrochit. The location of the other meetings will be determined nearer the dates. All members and prospective members welcome.

Soirbheas attend Community Investing Training

admin — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:09:15 +0000

Tanya Castell, Chair of Soirbheas, attended a Community Energy Scotland (CES) workshop in Stornoway on February 23rd/24th along with representatives from 5 other windfarm community trusts (all from the Western Isles) all of which are hoping to have their turbines connected in the next 12 months. The aim was to increase awareness of different procedures and methods of spending the income earnt.

The stated objectives were
* To be equipped to ask the right questions and develop criteria and spending method.
* To identify the different procedures that could be adopted.
* To develop an application form for application to the charity’s income.
* To identify who will be eligible and what the criteria will be.
A summary of the discussions is to be produced by CES.

Interest free loans available to small businesses wanting to install energy efficiency measures

admin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:53:45 +0000

£2.5 million of additional funding has been made available by the Scottish Government in the shape of interest free loans to small companies to install renewable energy technologies or reduce energy consumption. Energy Saving Scotland’s Small Business Loan scheme provides interest free loans of between £1000 and £100,000 to assist in saving energy and installing renewable energy technologies.

Funded by the Scottish Government, the scheme aims to support businesses that are looking to replace old and inefficient technology as well as install energy efficiency measures. The scheme is aimed at Scottish businesses that fall within the EC definition of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME), private sector landlords, not-for-profit organisations and charities.

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/Business-services/In-depth-energy-advice/Small-business-loans