In May 2019, TGV undertook a Flying Expert visit to provide support to our Irish partners the South Kerry Development Partnership. These exchanges are a fundamental part of the ECCO project, where expertise from one partner is deployed to provide assistance in community energy projects for another partner.
TGV has extensive expertise in the development of high head hydro systems and the similarity in the landscapes of Wales and South Kerry created an opportunity for us to use our expertise to help identify suitable sites for community hydro schemes in Ireland. We scoped two potential sites for development, provided some greater insight into permitting and environmental considerations and created some financial outlines to help SKDP identify if community hydro schemes could be developed under the ECCO project.
We will continue to provide assistance to our Irish friends, have promised not to mention Wales’ 2019 Grand Slam more than strictly necessary and hope we can help accelerate the development of community hydro schemes in South Kerry and beyond.