The four projects set to receive funding are as follows:
- Islay Energy Community Benefit Society will receive a £735k loan to install a community owned 330Kw wind turbine on the island, with the potential to power the equivalent of 300 homes.
- Edinburgh-based Nova Innovation has secured a £700k loan from REIF to support the first phase of the 0.5MW Shetland Tidal Array, believed to be the first deployment of a tidal energy array anywhere in the world. Scottish Enterprise is backing the project with a £1.2 million R&D grant that will lever in an additional £1.85 million of private sector investment.
- Fintry Development Trust, a body dedicated to making the village in Stirlingshire a zero-carbon, zero-waste community, is being supported with a £615k loan. It will help refinance a commercial agreement that gives the trust an income stream from the nearby Earlsburn Wind Farm. This income will be invested in local renewable projects.
- Inverness company AWS Ocean Energy has received a loan of £250k to support further development and testing of its AWS-III, a wave energy device which offers the prospect of wave energy on a farm scale. AWS also received support through the first round of WATERS funding.
“This latest round of Scottish Enterprise funding underlines the Scottish Government’s commitment to Scotland’s growing renewables sector," said Energy Minister Fergus Ewing while attending the All-Energy Conference in Aberdeen.
He noted that clean, green energy is creating opportunities for communities across Scotland and delivering jobs and investment.
"We have tremendous green energy potential and vast natural resources, about a quarter of Europe's wind and tidal energy and 10% of its wave power."
Andrew Smith, head of the Renewable Energy Investment Fund, welcomed the news.
“These are really ambitious and exciting projects, which clearly demonstrate the wide range of initiatives that REIF was set up to support," he stated. "They also show how by working with other funders we can leverage significant investment from the private sector."