Community Windpower announced as sponsor of Scotsheep

The biennial event on Wednesday, June 5, is the flagship event for NSA Scotland and will bring together thousands of attendees from across Scotland and north England to the Hamilton family’s Aikengall Farm in the heart of the Lammermuir hills near Innerwick, Dunbar.

Sponsored by Community Windpower, Scotsheep will welcome more than 200 trade stands including commercial exhibitors, sheep breed societies and individual breeders, as well as a range of seminars, workshops and working demonstrations highlighting key challenges facing the industry as well as the opportunities available in the future.

Farming a flock of 1,400 Blackface ewes and 900 suckler cows at Aikengall, as well as 1,400 Scotch Mules at their nearby Nunraw, the Hamiltons have a keen interest in treating their surrounding environment as an equal enterprise and host a 16-turbine site which is leased to Community Windpower.

Commissioned in 2009, together with two nearby sites these wind farms generate nearly 200MW of renewable energy – enough electricity to power more than 140,000 homes and displace around 135,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

As part of its commitment to the local community, Community Windpower recently operated a £1 million East Lothian Energy Fund which was funded by the Aikengall developments and directly helped 1,400 of the most vulnerable households in East Lothian during the energy and cost-of-living crisis.

Community Windpower will have a marquee at the heart of the event and will combine this with a workshop in the demonstration area during the day.

Rod Wood, managing director of Community Windpower, said: “We are proud to be a main sponsor of Scotsheep 2024 and are looking forward to welcoming Scotland’s farming community to Aikengall for what will be a fantastic and educational event, recognising the vital contribution that sheep farming makes to the local and national community.

“Local renewable energy projects make a meaningful difference to their host communities and we are grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to East Lothian at this year’s Scotsheep spectacle.”