The text below is the transcript from the Green Economy Fund, Saughton Park video.
Video Title: Green Economy Fund, Saughton Park
SP Energy Networks were looking for a variety of projects, decarbonisation projects to fund through our Green Economy Fund.
We found one in Saughton micro hydro. It’s one of the first, if not the first in the UK, to power a green eco space using decarbonised energy. That’s why we put half a million pounds towards the implementation of this project.
It’s a community led project, it’s a sustainable project, all the savings made from the generation of their own electricity go back into the community to fund projects in and around Saughton Park, and it offers a great opportunity for education for the local community to understand how that process works, but also the technology aspect. A micro hydro scheme, in the middle of a city, we found that quite fascinating, so that’s why we decided this was a great project to invest in.
Well Saughton Park is the park of my childhood, and six years ago the HLF and the council, and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society came together to bid for some funding to totally regenerate the park.
So the energy project is the micro hydro. The energy is used for power in the park. For the glass houses, our garden bistro and offices, so it really is a wonderful green project.
Well this means a lot to Edinburgh, it’s hugely important. It’s the first eco park in the whole of the UK. This is very much a flagship project. Very much the intention is to use this as a model.
A park like Saughton Park is just absolutely wonderful for the community. The funding from SP Energy Networks was fantastic. We had a small amount laid aside but we would never have been able to accomplish the exercise without their funding.
Projects like Saughton micro hydro are very beneficial to the local community. We have a removal of carbon from the local environment, I believe about 90 million tonnes per annum. We also have a saving in terms of energy costs, which is around £18,000 per annum, which can be reinvested in community projects, but also sets an example which can be repeated across Central Scotland, and across the UK potentially, where similar projects can deliver similar results in terms of both decarbonisation and sustainable cost savings to the local community.