Harlaw Hydro

In 2015, 2 years after raising the initial finance, the community hydro scheme in Harlaw starting generating green electricity to sell back to the grid. The scheme generates approximately 325,702 kWh a year, enough to power about 101 homes.

Community Funding
The profits generated from the hydro scheme allows Harlaw Hydro to make contributions to projects and initiatives within the local area through their partners the Balerno Village Trust. Many important local projects have received significant funding from the hydro profits, such as an all-weather sports pitch at the local high school. Alongside this, small grants of up to £500 are also available to local organisations to deliver their charitable activities.

Empowered communities
The hydro build marked the culmination of several years of planning, fundraising and managing by members of the Balerno community. The were no public funds or private bank loans required to deliver the hydro scheme. The funding and the development was, and continues to be, 100% community owned and led – delivering significant benefits to the people of Balerno.

“We had our share launch in 2013, expecting to get around half the money we needed on the basis we’d be able to borrow the rest. In-fact we got everything we needed inside about three weeks. That astonished us but hopefully a number of community groups see what we’ve done and think ‘ we can do that too’.”

Martin Petty, Chairperson