News / New fund to cut community group’s power bills
A NEW £400,000 scheme to help community groups in Shetland save money by improving energy efficiency has been launched in the isles.
The two year programme is being joint funded by Shetland Islands Council and the European LEADER Fund, and is being run in conjunction with Community Energy Scotland.
It follows a questionnaire put out by the Shetland Halls Association about electricity bills in the islands’ 100 community buildings, which revealed some were spending as much as £15,000 on power.
SIC sports and leisure services manager Neil Watt said the new Community Energy Efficiency Programme (CEEP) was designed to fill a gap that left community groups unable to apply for assistance in the same way as households and businesses.
The CEEP fund will be able to help with small scale energy efficiency projects, such as loft insulation, energy efficient lighting, thermal blinds and “smart” technologies that reduced consumption.
It can also be used to help towards the installation of small scale renewables, such as a wind turbine, solar panels or ground/air source heat pumps.
“The higher the energy bills are, the more difficult it is to heat the buildings so people stop using them and income falls. This is designed to break that spiral of decline,” Mr Watt said.
The scheme will make £200,000 available each year to organisations such as youth centres, boating clubs, community halls, heritage centres, youth hostels, changing facilities, community museums and history groups.
There are two stages to the fund, the first paying up to 90 per cent of the cost of independent advice on energy efficiency up to a maximum of £2,000. The second pays up to 75 per cent for work to be completed, with an upper limit of £40,000.
Jennifer Nicolson, of Community Energy Scotland, said people should contact their local community worker if they were interested in the scheme.
She said that she knew of youth centres in Shetland that had introduced “background heating” who had more than halved their electricity bills.
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