Serious foundation work is now ongoing on site preparatory to next month’s turbine raising.

More photos will follow soon. As you can see, the work is being well supervised!

The cable from the turbine site to the grid is now in place, the turbine is being built, and we’re working to schedule for commissioning in early June. The main milestones are:

April: Foundation construction

May: Electrical balance of plant,  turbine delivery

31st May: grid connection completion by SSE

First week of June: Turbine construction and commissioning

We have also pencilled in the Saturday 12th July for our first AGM. This meeting will be on the site so will be a chance for all members to see the turbine in action!

We’ve just heard the great news that Dennis Overton, one of our Directors, has received an OBE for New Year, for services to the economy in Alness and Rwanda. And, we might add, Dingwall! Many congratulations to Dennis.

In other news, all the share certificates are now issued, the turbine has been ordered, and significant work has happened on site with a kilometre of cable laid to date – all on schedule for installation in May 2014.  A very happy New Year to all our members and supporters

We’ve got there with 5 days to spare – marvellous! Applications are still coming in though – this may seem illogical but as we prioritise by proximity to the site, there is still a chance for very local people to apply and get shares, and they are very welcome to do so. The turbine will go on order very soon and we’re all set for installation in late Spring.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to our share offer – hard to believe it’s not even a week yet and we have already received applications for £456,250 worth of shares – over 50% of our target! Our initial Pioneer shares were actually sold out by the end of the weekend. The vast majority of applicants are local to the turbine. The share offer will run until the end of November as advertised to give as many local people as possible the chance to join up – but it would be great to keep the momentum going – can we get to £500,000 by the end of the month?

We are pleased to say that our Share Offer is open and the document is available for download here:

Dingwall Wind Co-op Share Offer

If you would prefer to have a hard copy then please contact us on 01743 277119 or at info@dingwallwind.org.uk. The share offer is due to run until 30 November 2013.

We were very pleased to receive confirmation from HMRC that our share offer qualifies in principle for EIS and Seed EIS tax relief. Just in time for the launch events this Friday and Saturday in Dingwall.

Tax relief is not just for the wealthy – it is likely to apply to many share applicants who are taxpayers. In short, your investment significantly reduces your income tax bill.  Here’s how it works:

Mary is a qualifying taxpayer who invests £1,000 in EIS qualifying shares. The EIS relief available is £300 (£1,000 at 30%). If her income tax liability for the year (before EIS relief) was, for example, £4,000, she could reduce it to £3,700 as a result of her investment. If she invested in SEIS qualifying shares the relief would be £500 and her income tax liability would be reduced to £3,500.

We’re offering shares under both schemes. The share offer document will be available at the launch events and will be published online at the same time – 7.30 pm on Friday 20th September

For full details of EIS and Seed EIS schemes see www.hmrc.gov.uk/eis/ and /www.hmrc.gov.uk/seedeis/

We have now set a date of 20 September 2013 for the launch of our share offer. We are holding two launch events where you can find out more about the project and meet the team:

Friday 20 September 7.30pm at Dingwall Auction Mart.

Share offer launch with a presentation of the project, speakers and a Q&A session.

Saturday 21 September 10 am – 4 pm at Dingwall Auction Mart.

Drop-in session  – we will be available all day to answer questions in more detail.

The full share offer document will be available at both events.
In the meantime, sign up to our mailing list on the right of this page for more information or call Jon Halle on 01743 277119 to register an interest or for more information about the project

The Auction Mart is just south of Dingwall on the A862.

Address: Humberston, Bailechaul Road, Dingwall,  Ross-shire  IV15 9TP

Dingwall Wind Co-op is now registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as an Industrial and Provident Society. We have chosen this form as it is a stable, proven and democratic model for collective ownership of wind turbines and other renewable energy installations.