Awel Members on the Gwrhyd
Thirty members of Awel Co-op visited the site to see progress on the community wind farm which is currently being built on the Gwrhyd, 20 miles north of Swansea.
The oldest member was 84-year old Eric Bowen who was brought up on the Gwrhyd and worked all his life in the opencast coal mine at Tairgwaith, close to the wind farm. Eric said “I used to walk all these paths as a boy. I look forward to seeing the turbines up on the mountain generating clean power for future generations. I enjoyed discussing the technical aspects of the turbines with the engineers on the visit.”
Sioned Haf and Mair Craig who have both invested in the co-op said “It was wonderful to be in the fresh air. It’s a great site for wind turbines and very exciting that our community co-op owns them.”
The co-op has just re-opened its Share Offer to enable people to invest during construction which can be followed here. The co-op is aiming to raise £1,000,000 within a month. It is well on the way having already passed the £800,000 mark.
Dan McCallum, one of Awel’s Directors said, “We appointed a local company, Raymond Brown Construction, to start building in March. We now have 370 members and hope that many more will join us. In the future, we plan to arrange regular site visits as everyone really enjoyed it. We want community renewable energy to be the future.”
The Share Offer is open till June 15th at a projected interest rate of 7%.
Shares are available from £50 and as a co-op, each member is entitled to one vote, irrespective of how many shares they own.
We want more people to join the co-op and share the excitement of being part of something positive.”