On Wednesday 7th December 2011 Upperlands Community Development Ltd (UCDL) played host to a European delegation of partners from the ‘SMALLEST’ project. Upperlands was one of only three schemes selected to showcase outstanding ways in which renewable energy is being used by rural organisations in Northern Ireland.
‘SMALLEST’ (Solutions for Microgeneration that ALLow Energy Saving Technologies) is a European funded Interreg project offering free professional advice, training and support services to rural communities interested in undertaking renewable energy projects. The project runs until June 2012 across all Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) partner regions including; Northern Ireland, Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, Scotland and Sweden.
UCDL is currently participating in the ‘SMALLEST’ project which is run locally by Action Renewables and the University of Ulster (Coleraine). Together these organisations are helping UCDL to further develop their hydro-electric generation scheme, which has been running since 1999 and is one of a few community businesses which generate revenues in such a novel way. The money generated has also been used for social benefit including the creation of a community centre, business and retail units, a post office. In addition UCDL acts as a conduit for a range of government services aimed at those most at risk within the Upperlands community and have been able to set up a health and wellbeing club for senior citizens.
UCDL director, Eric Glasgow comments, “The ‘SMALLEST’ project has been great for us and has given us the opportunity to work with Action Renewables and the University of Ulster. They are helping us to develop our hydro-electric scheme by exploring the benefits of upgrading and improving the efficiency of our existing turbine and the feasibility of installing a second turbine. As a community we are committed to using renewable energy and we are confident that our hydro-electric project can produce much greater revenues which together with our rental earnings, can provide a very significant financial resource for the Upperlands community.
Terry Waugh, Deputy Director, Action Renewables adds: “The UCDL hydro-electric generation scheme was chosen to showcase to representatives from our ‘SMALLEST’ project partner regions because it is a good example of how a local rural community has significantly benefited from the implementation of renewable energy. We are delighted to be working with UCDL to give them guidance and assistance. In the past, organisations in rural communities have found it difficult to find the help needed to implement renewable energy generation projects but the ‘SMALLEST’ project is addressing these issues and providing training to help make renewable energy solutions more accessible to all parts of the community – no matter how remote” adds Terry.
As part of their trip to Northern Ireland the ‘SMALLEST’ project partners also visited Orchard Acre Farm in Irvinestown which has installed biomass and SWH systems and the combined heat and power (CHP) plant at Balcas in Enniskillen, which is used to manufacture ‘brites’ wood pellets.
