After a bit of back and forth with Gwynedd Council responding to questions on the planning application planning consent was granted on the 6th November 2018!!
We have also just received our grid connection offer from Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) and thankfully their quote for the substation we’ll need to connect to the national grid is now a bit lower than previously though still not cheap. We now have two of the three main consents for the hydro. The missing bit is the Abstraction License from Natural Resources Wales and we are assured this is 75% done and should only take a few more weeks.
We hope to be able to benefit from the feed in tariff (FIT) which currently provides a 6.46 p per kWh incentive payment. However, the scheme is closing in April 2019 and to qualify we need to pre-register by the end of March. We are on schedule to meet this deadline and are busy negotiating assistance with costs of further preparatory work and a bridging loan for the down payment required for the grid connection from the Welsh Government Energy Service administered by the Energy Saving Trust.
Look out for news over the next few months, and the exciting opportunities for individuals in our community to be a part of this.