There she blows

Jimmy Fergus is a proud Westray resident. Most of his life has been spent on the small Orkney island, which stretches just 12 miles from north to south and has a population of just 600.

Now 85, Jimmy's hearing isn't that good, but he still cracks a joke and has an infectious smile as he talks about his beloved community and his life as a traditional Orkney chair-maker in the communal room of the Westray care centre.

It's unbelievable to think that, just four years ago, someone in Jimmy's position would have been forced to leave their home in order to receive the care they needed in their senior years. This not only meant being moved to the mainland but, in some cases, up to 20 miles away.

This centre comprises five small flats each accommodating up to two residents plus one respite room. It opened in 2005 following a donation from a local couple and is just one of the projects that could benefit from cash generated by the Westray wind turbine, a God of a structure standing alone on a hillside, towering over the sparse landscape.

This is not your usual turbine. Yes, it will generate electricity, but this won't be used by the island's community. Instead, the Westray Development Trust (WDT), a company limited by guarantee formed in 1998, will sell the energy back to the National Grid, generating £100,000 a year for the first ten years and £200,000 a year once its debts have been paid off. And this is a conservative estimate, based on it working at just 50 per cent capacity. It's estimated to produce 3500MWh per year, but the potential is for a lot more.

Not only will the care centre get everything it needs to make it an even more enjoyable place to live, but Westray will also get a tourist-enticing nine-hole golf course within three years and be able to invest in eradicating fuel poverty, which is a massive issue for the older residents of this cold and blustery island. The idea was born ten years ago and the project has been five years in development at a cost of £1.6m. It was held up for almost two years as WDT couldn't find a manufacturer to sell it just one turbine. But then turbine developers and installers Enercon stepped in.

Finally, in September 2009, the turbine was erected. It's 45m high with rotor blades stretching 44m in diameter and is rooted in 30 tonnes of steel.

But as Alasdair McVicar, volunteer co-director of WDT says, it's not just investing in community projects, it's investing in the future of the community.

'The population of Westray was 2,200 100 years ago. Now it's just over 600. If we don't invest in our community, then we'll start to lose things like the health services and the school. If the economy is good then the island is strong,' he tells a group of journalists during a press tour, courtesy of Triodos, on a cold and wet day, sheep watching us as we drive past.'We no longer have the essential facilities. We've only got one shop. Why would you send your kids here? With the school goes the doctors. If this happens, the population becomes aged and then we have problems.'

A diverse community

Westray is an island dedicated to diversification, new ideas and getting a job done. Along with those who farm 95 per cent of the island's land, those that farm seaweed and salmon off the shore and the fishermen who send their catch all over the world, there's the island baker, who exports almost 80 per cent of his produce and doubles up as the local paramedic. There's the farmer who is also a civil engineer. And then there's the local wool shop that has also become the island's off licence.

There's also a youth centre, set up by WDT to offer fun and training in trades such as building. It's made a massive difference to the island's younger residents, helping them form their own community. And there's the idea to build further small wind turbines across the island that will also contribute to the grid, as well as plans to install a biodiesel plant to produce 20,000 litres of fuel a year, which will be sold at a slashed rate for locals.

This community dedication is the reason WDT was picked as the winner of the best community initiative at the prestigious Scottish Green Energy Awards on 3 December.

These established projects and new ones on the horizon could grow with money from the Westray wind turbine. And with new projects come new jobs.

But why use this technological beast to make money rather than provide every home and business with its own electricity, a move that would save every resident a few pennies?

'With grants becoming more scarce and volunteer burnout, we need to take a new approach,' says McVicar, a former scientific adviser to the Canadian government.

'When the community realised it would be their turbine and not someone else's, they were behind it.'

But even with the whole island backing it, the community of 600 needed some extra help.

The most significant help came from the Big Lottery Fund, which gave WDT a grant of £761,000, making up half of the funding that was needed. Most of the remaining 50 per cent came in the form of a loan from ethical bank Triodos, which only invests in organisations that benefit people and the environment. The loan will be repaid over the course of the next decade. Smaller pots of money and support came from Community Energy Scotland, Enercon and Smartest Energy, which buys and supplies green energy and has entered into a tailor-made ten-year flexible power purchase agreement with WDT. WDT is also working in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy.

David Stephenson, another co-director of WDT and Westray Renewable Energy Ltd, a company limited by shares set up and owned by WDT to run the turbine business, says looking for funding convinced them that the social enterprise approach was the right one.

'In the early days, we would put our hands in anyone's pockets for cash,' he says.

'Triodos is an integral part. How many banks do you see ploughing money into this kind of project? We didn't know if we could hack working with a big bank, but we showed them our capabilities. I have worked in finance and project management, which helped. In fact, we all have skills that helped.

'When the turbine was delivered, people were lining the streets. Now we're there. This is the first community project of its kind in the UK and it's run by volunteers. It's an amazing feat.'

Triodos was convinced of the project's potential. Steve Moore, relationship manager for Triodos' environment team, says the bank was willing to take a risk with the community of Westray.

'We know about this kind of sustainable energy project and the difference it can make to a community. With decreasing population numbers, Westray knew it had to do something that would make a real difference,' he says.

'It's a well structured project and they [WDT] know what they're talking about. We're already using Westray as a model for other projects.'

Spreading the knowledge

Harnessing natural resources is big on Scotland's agenda and WDT is already working with sustainable energy charity, Community Energy Scotland (CES), to produce a toolkit so other communities can learn from them.

While the Westray wind turbine is one of the biggest and most expensive projects, it has paved the way for CES to develop similar projects and four are already in development.

Patrick Ross-Smith, CES's area manager for Shetland and the western Orkney isles, said other islands have been creating their development plans and can get help of up to £150,000 from CES.

'They're all different, with different sets of aspirations,' he says in his office on the Orkney main island of Kirkwell.

'Westray is the first and it's created a model. Now CES can help develop that model in other areas and we're in it for the long term. A falling population is a problem for many islands, but with projects like this, the community can turn it around.

'It's not just about making money, it's about creating confidence and resilience too. By investing the money they make, the community has control of its own future.

'Following a few technical hiccups in the weeks following the Westray turbine's installation, the first pennies are starting to role in. Yet even at this early stage, WDT is thinking of new ventures.

'The turbine has a design life of 18 years, but we don't know what will change in that time. Wind technology might not be the future. It might be tide power,' says Stephenson, who was not born and bred on Westray, but is now an honorary islander.

It's something Triodos already knows about. The bank has invested in the world's first commercial tidal turbine in Northern Ireland.

Back in the care centre, Jimmy drinks tea and eats biscuits with the island's parish minister, Iain MacDonald, who's lived on the island for 16 years.

'People haven't wanted to stand back and see this place haemorrhage,' MacDonald says, while talking passionately about his persuasive community, sitting by a stained glass window designed by local schoolchildren.

'Westray has a reputation for being progressive. You just have to look at the youth work the development trust has done and the care centre. There were people having to leave the island for the first time to receive care.

'This care centre is the kind of essential facility that could be supported by the turbine, although it should be something the local authority provides for us.

'We don't want to use the turbine income to pay for something we are already entitled to. The money we make will definitely be used for extras, like making the centre a better place to live.

'Everyone has an idea of what the turbine money could go on and it's not something we've really discussed yet. We'll let it settle in first.'