Over €700,000 awarded by SSE Airtricity to community groups in Co. Donegal since 2007
05 Dec 2016
SSE Airtricity, Ireland’s largest green energy provider, has presented over €100,000 to community groups close to its Meentycat Wind Farm in Co. Donegal.
Through its Community Fund, SSE Airtricity makes annual contributions to community groups in the vicinity of its wind farms. The company has been donating to local projects near its Meentycat Wind Farm since 2007 and has handed out over €710,000 so far between the Meentycat Community Fund and Sponsored Walk.
In September, around 800 people took part in the annual SSE Airtricity Meentycat Community Fund Sponsored Walk, fundraising more than €66,000 for local community projects.
SSE Airtricity handed out a further €49,000 to the participating groups on Monday 5th December, and another €51,265 to 14 local groups through the company’s annual Community Fund on Tuesday 6th December.
The majority of this year’s Community Fund recipients are putting the funding towards greater energy efficiency projects, which SSE Airtricity strongly supports. Projects being supported range from fitting energy efficient replacement windows at Gleneely National School to installing cavity wall insulation for the 6th Stranorlar Scouts Group.
Anne Reynolds, SSE Airtricity Community Development Officer, said:
“With nearly 800 walkers raising over €66,000 for their own causes, this year’s Meentycat Sponsored Walk was the largest to date. We were delighted to hand out an additional €49,000 to support the groups and boost their fundraising efforts. We also presented a further €51,265 from our Meentycat Community Fund to 14 worthy and forward-thinking community projects. It’s great to see that the majority of the money is going towards improvements in energy efficiency, which is something we’re always promoting at SSE Airtricity, as it really helps the communities over the long-term.”
SSE Airtricity’s Meentycat Wind Farm is the largest wind farm in Ireland. Meentycat and the adjoining Culliagh Wind Farm near Lifford have a combined renewable energy generation capability of 100MW.