The future is green in UDNY

The Udny community Turbine Company have kindly agreed to write a regular blog on our website...so here is the first episode..

 Burying the Timecapsule...

So, Thursday the 19th May was a great event indeed. We had school children attend from Udny Green Primary and Pitmedden Primary. All were very excited at the prospect of seeing the turbine completed (but not yet commissioned) and the chance to bury the time capsule - what would it contain?

Many others attended including:
Enercon chief engineer and sales representative from Germany, lawyers from BTO who acted for the Triodos Bank with whom we have a 100% loan, a representative from Scottish and Southern Energy, the Tillymaud Farm landowner Mrs Helen Smith and her husband Rob, son David and grandson Christopher.

The children made the event though. They regard the turbine as theirs, and quite rightly so. This was their chance to touch it, smell it and listen to it, and join hands to form a great circle around it - many photo opportunities.

Then to the time capsule event - this consisted of a rigid inert plastic chemical storage tub used to hold nitric acid bottles at out lab (we rinsed it out beforehand, honest). One child from each school brought forward laminated photographs, a list of pupils and teachers and examples of school work to go into the capsule. Then Garth brought forward photos and documents on behalf of the Turbine Company and lastly, Mrs Helen Smith provided a mystery document tied in a bow. Then we asked the children if they would come back in 20 years time to dig up the capsule and have a grand party, and would they invite us old timers along - yes, yes, yes was the response at which point Garth took the time capsule and had a quick whip round for funds for the party - I guess there were more business cards than notes. The children counted us down and we dropped the capsule into the hole. All the children took a hand to fill-in the hole and now its location is a secret (hopefully note to become a mystery).

The children then presented Helen Smith with flowers and Rob Smith with an Enercon model turbine (a very highly prized possession) and thanked Helen for allowing their turbine to be built on her land.

The turbine Co directors and members from other companies present adjourned to the Linsmohr Hotel for lunch and discussions. All in all it was a wonderful morning for us guys - the school children have worked with us on this project since 2008 and we hope we have given them sufficient encouragement to become more involved in Community projects as they grow older.

The turbine will be commissioned by next week and then left to its solitary job of generating electricity whilst for us, the real project starts. The five of us have spent 4-5 years working on this project and it feels like we're coming to the end of an era. It has been a great project so far and we have all worked well together - we now look forwards to developing the Trust Company, involving new people and planning the first round of projects for the community - more on that later.