00:01There's a no-brainer in a sense of it's very straightforward and it produces a lot of electricity and money.
00:15We aren't developers. We've got no experience in developing hydro projects of any scale.
00:20So we thought, ooh, can we really do this?
00:24But any of them were very good. They'd come in and more or less told us that they would handle
00:30all the, basically the aspects of it in terms of gaining finance, getting the money assembled, all the regulatory stuff.
00:40All of that they would handle. And the company, Highland Eco, they would provide all the technical assistance that was
00:48necessary.
00:49So we ourselves did not have to have any of this expertise.
00:54We just have, all we required to have was an enthusiasm and a desire to actually go ahead with this
01:01sort of project.
01:06I do some maintenance work here once a week, once a month, sorry, greasing a turbine, generator, little jobs in
01:18there.
01:19Other than that, it's pretty self-managing.
01:24It's automatic systems. The company, Highland Eco, who we have as leader, managing the technical aspects of it.
01:35They can monitor it if they see anything wrong.
01:38If it's serious, they can come up here. Otherwise, they can ask me to go and have a look.
01:43I'll follow their instructions and do whatever is required.
01:46It takes very little time, really. It takes a matter of hours in a month, not a lot.
01:53We are only at a 200 kilowatt scheme, and we will bring to this community this year £50,000 in
02:00benefit.
02:01Now, if you scaled that up to a big wind farm, you'd be looking at millions they would have to
02:06pay out, which of course they won't do.
02:08If we, using the same model, built, say, three turbines, fairly discreetly located, that would produce as much, if not
02:18more, than a large wind farm.
02:33It produces more, ultimately, for them.
02:37And the benefits stay here, as opposed to going into the pockets of shareholders elsewhere,
02:44via multinational companies. Community energy, community-based energy is the way forward for small communities like this.
02:54It produces more in the long run, which stays in the community.
02:59It doesn't go overseas. It doesn't go out of our hands.
03:03There should be much more emphasis on promoting and helping the development of small-scale community projects.
03:11We can have lots of them. They can be wind, solar, hydro is here.
03:18And we own it, we run it, and we benefit.
03:23Good for talking.
03:23Here, here, here.
03:25Here, here.
03:25You
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