North Harris Trading Company Ltd

At last someone’s realised the difficulties community groups have funding renewable energy schemes these days. Since the introduction of Feed-in-Tariff for micro-generation projects, rules stop communities going down the usual route of securing grant funding from the likes of the Big Lottery and Climate Challenge Fund. This would apparently contradict the rules on State Aid to, in this case, the electricity industry. It is also driving more communities, cap-in-hand,  to the high-street banks; the banks that don’t really understand renewable energy.

The Sustainable Community Energy Investment Forum had its inaugural meeting last week in Edinburgh. The North Harris Trust was invited to attend. The forum brings together Academics, Communities, Government and Non-Government Organisations and Financiers. The workshop sessions sought to document the barriers faced by community groups. The hope is that they will be able to convince the banks that renewable schemes are not as risky as they think. The Government is guaranteeing 20 years of Feed-in-Tariff payments. How much re-assurance do they need?

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