March 11, 2009
Fintry folk to FRESHen up
The Fintry community hit the headlines in 2004 when they persuaded a private developer to add an additional wind turbine during the construction of a nearby wind farm. The community were to raise the finance to cover the additional costs of the community-owned turbine and then recycle the substantial profits back into a range of local projects. Now they want to share their experience with other communities and are organising a two day event – FRESH ’09 – to do just that
Fresh ’09 (Fintry Renewable Energy Show) is a two day event being held in the village of Fintry on the 8th and 9th May.
It is aimed at community bodies and householders who want to know more about what they can do in their communitieis and households to tackle climate change.
The programme is almost finalised and it looks like it will consist of –
Friday 8th May
• Morning – Community Conference with Alan Caldwell from Comrie Development Trust, Michael Carr from the Energy Agency, Rachel Nunn from Carbon Neutral Stirling, and Jon Rathjen from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund.
• Afternoon – Visits to renewable technology installations, including micro-hydro, ground source heat pumps, biomass (wood fueld), solar panels.
• Afternoon – Visit to Earlsburn windfarm
• Evening – Debate on the role of communities in renewables with speakers including Bruce Crawford MSP, Jason Ormiston the chief executive of Scottish Renewables, Alan Hobbett the chair of Community Energy Scotland and Martin Turner the chair of Fintry Development Trust.
Saturday 9th May
• Morning – Tech talks chaired by Andy Lyle from RD Energy Services and covering householder installations of ground-source and air-source heat pumps, biomass (wood fuel), solar photo-voltaic, solar water heating, and micro-wind.
• Afternoon – Visits to renewable technology installations, including micro-hydro, ground source heat pumps, biomass (wood fueld), solar panels.
• Afternoon – Visit to Earlsburn windfarm
• Evening – Concert (tbc)
Throughout the event there will be an exhibition of renewable technologies from a wide variety of vendors.