At Ridge Clean Energy, our core values are centered on one word: community. We engage with local communities near our projects from project inception, building partnerships that will last throughout the lifetime of a project.
We have already worked with many different communities and supported initiatives such as: Warm Spaces, Energy Helpmates, school breakfast clubs and tree planting.
Additionally, we have successfully worked with community groups providing grant funding support, as well presenting at school assemblies, and providing information on community building energy efficiency.
Ridge Clean Energy believes communities should share the progress and advantages of a future powered by renewable energy, therefore, each of our Renewable Energy Parks include a dedicated Community Benefit Fund for the local area.
The fund will provide money for the local community each year, throughout the lifetime of the project’s operation, and the size of the fund is linked to a project’s technology (solar, wind or both) and size.
Our team already have experience with Community Benefit Funds, having successfully implemented them for many currently operational wind farm projects.
We have an experienced Community Partnership Team that work with local communities to create enduring local benefits.
Since 2020, we have been working with community leaders and groups in the town of Inveraray in Scotland, near to our Ladyfield project.
After initial discussions with the community, it was made apparent that the town’s pier had fallen into disrepair after being bought by a private owner, making it unusable and therefore closed to the public. The community wanted this former asset to be restored and reopened once again.
Our team worked swiftly, applying for funding from various sources on behalf of the community. We can proudly say we were successful, raising enough money to enable the community to purchase and begin restoration of the pier.
“We, Inveraray CC and Inspire Inveraray are eternally grateful to Daniela, Dine and Marjorie from RCE for all their help in pointing us in the right direction for funding for our pier project and help in filling out the applications. We were fundraising on our own when we met with them, and they gave us direction and the confidence to apply for funding. We are now in a position that the sale is almost complete, and we can get the restoration done and once again have Inveraray pier open to the public.” – Linda Divers, Inveraray Community Council Chair
