Braemar Community Hydro




Environmental sustainability; Improvement of services / infrastructures; Other

Braemar Community Hydro Ltd is a Community Benefit Society which has been formed to fundraise, construct and operate a 100kW community hydro scheme. The hydro scheme will generate clean, low-carbon electricity from the Corriemulzie Burn on the outskirts of Braemar. Surplus income from the enterprise will go to a community benefit fund to be used for projects and worthy causes in the local community. The social innovation was designing a crowdfunding scheme for a social enterprise. There is already a community development trust in Braemar which triggered the interest and a subgroup floated off the hydro enterprise with a separate set of trustees. No formal lending institutions were used in raising about £800,000.



Services delivery; Assistance & Advice; Social media; Public participation; Support (Technical, legal, etc.); Fundraising; Project management
Local Energy Scotland, Community Shares Scotland, and Co-operatives UK

• Funding of community initiatives: over the lifetime of the project it is envisaged that the scheme will generate £500,000 for this community benefit fund. • Return to community shareholders • Built skills in community









* Information at the level of NUTS 3 or local regions.