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Allt Dearg Partners' delighted at the success of "Community Benefit"

Posted on 16/10/2013 by James Lithgow

After the first nine months of commercial operation the Ardrishaig Community Trust have received income of £130,000 from their investment in the Allt Dearg Community Wind Farm partnership.

The founding partners of the Allt Dearg Community Wind Farm, the Lithgow family of Ormsary and Broadfoot family of Stronachullin, are very pleased with the amount of direct community benefit distributed after the first nine months operation at Allt Dearg.  

James Lithgow of Ormsary said - " When we started out, we hoped that our neighbouring community in Ardrishaig might receive an income from their partnership share of around £60,000 per annum by the second year of operation.  As things have turned out Allt Dearg has generated more than double that amount in the first nine months of operation.  We are very fortunate to have an excellent site and first class local team, who work exceptionally hard to keep the turbines in operation 24 / 7.  It is too early to say for sure, but the national data available for comparative wind farm generation since we started in January this year,  indicates that Allt Dearg may be the most productive wind farm in the UK with an installed capacity of 10MW or more.  Only time will tell if the Allt Dearg Community Wind Farm is able to keep up this level of generation, however we are confident that the project will continue to provide our community partner with a very valuable income stream for many years to come".

Mary Broadfoot of Stronachullin said - " It gives me real pleasure whenever I see the new things happening in Ardrishaig as a result of the wind farm money that has been received by the ACTion Fund.  We set out to be locally owned and the advantages this brings to the neighbouring community are now very apparent.  In the financial year 2011/12 the Council's figures show that the seven commercial wind farms operating in Argyll with a combined generation capacity of 137MW, made community benefit payments in Argyll totalling £161,000.  After  our first nine months operation, the 10MW Allt Dearg wind farm has produced £166,748 for the Ardrishaig Community and the Allt Dearg Educational Trusts."