Just when you’re really not getting anywhere with a project, another one comes along.
Scottish Water has spent a fortune upgrading the Water Treatment Works at Carragreich. This is now supplying purified water to the majority of North Harris and Scalpay. Last year a pipe was installed over the hill to Maraig; connecting the village to the new water main. In doing so, another of the remote, village-scale treatment works becomes redundant. And there’s the opportunity. Plenty of water tumbles down from behind the Clisham, now with no-one to use it. Maybe we can design a 50kW scheme that will get around the grid constraint that is holding up the bigger Bunavoneader project. All projects >50kW are on hold until the undersea cable and interconnector are in place… and who knows when that will be?
Community Energy Scotland has offered to put together a tender for a feasibility study for this river as well as two other potential community schemes on Lewis. Hopefully in a few months time we’ll have a better idea of the costs involved, and how productive the river could be.
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