SSEN Transmission has delivered the first £2 million from the initial £10m pot of its community benefit fund.
The company’s Regional Community Benefit Fund awarded money to 10 organisations across the north of Scotland.
The Kyle & Lochalsh Community Trust received the largest share, £361,989, which will go to building a longhouse-style heritage centre.
Inverness College UHI received £352,000 to help create a state-of-the-art Sustainable Construction Centre in Inverness, while Regional Screen Scotland received £350,000 to fund a new mobile cinema to service over 40 remote communities across the Highlands and Islands.
In addition, THAW Orkney was granted £295,322 to develop a flexible whole-house retrofit pathway, providing property upgrades to fuel-poor households across a subset of Orkney’s outer isles.
Language programme Fèis Rois, UHI North, West and Hebrides and North East Scotland College each received over £100,000 of funding, with sub-£100,000 grants going to Growing2gether, Orkney Construction Training Group and North East Scotland Retrofit Hub.
The first round of funding received 328 applicants, representing over £50m, looking for grants ranging from a minimum of £40,000 up to £500,000.
While community benefit funds have been touted as a way to spread the wealth of Scotland’s renewable energy boom, critics have warned that rural communities may not be getting a fair deal.
Activists have warned that the money developers provide is not enough to offset the impact of pylons and other infrastructure.
Independent chair of the fund and former Scottish Government Minister Peter Peacock said: “The projects we have been able to fund won through against stiff competition and are all designed to make a real difference to people, places, and cultural life in the north.
“The initiatives funded span the themes the fund is set up to support, by developing people’s skills for employability, keeping disadvantaged young people engaged and learning, enabling new approaches to reduce fuel poverty, enriching our cultural life, and expanding approaches to meeting rural housing needs.”
If government guidance allows this to be replicated for ‘Pathway to 2030’ projects, the north of Scotland could eventually see over £100m of funding made available for communities throughout the region.
This forms part of the company’s planned £20bn investment to upgrade the transmission network across the north of Scotland in support of Scotland and the UK’s energy security and clean power ambitions.
This also includes helping build 1,000 homes for workers across the north of Scotland to deal with housing shortages and support the region’s industrial development.
SSEN Transmission director of customers and stakeholders Christianna Logan added: “We’re committed to generating real, sustainable value by investing in projects that enrich lives and strengthen communities – and today’s announcement is just the start.
“We anticipate that our ‘Pathway to 2030’ investment programme will generate upwards of £100m in community benefit funding for communities right across the north of Scotland – helping to create a legacy from our investment in electricity infrastructure that will resonate for generations to come.”
