Grant awards for community and education organisations from Teiges Mountain Wind Farm Fund

Organisations in the Knocks, Brookeborough, and Cooneen areas have received funding worth over £52,000 from the Teiges Wind Farm Fund to support a wide range of educational, environmental, cultural, and sporting initiatives. Teiges Mountain Wind Farm is owned and operated by Energia Group, which incorporates Power NI. 

To date, Energia group has invested over £1.9 million in local projects across the island of Ireland through all its wind farm funds.  The Teiges community benefit fund was launched in 2017 and is administered by the Fermanagh Trust on behalf of Energia. Its aim is to ensure that the wind farm, whilst having obvious environmental benefits, will also provide significant social and economic benefits to the local community.

Young people will benefit greatly from the fund with grant awards going to Brookeborough PS and St Mary’s PS to help deliver an outdoor project as part of their Shared Education.

Local preschool ‘The Playstation’ used their grant award to help purchase new furniture for the children. Previously, Brookeborough Playstation has used wind farm funding to purchase accessories, including outdoor toys. The benefit fund has also helped contribute towards the resurfacing of their play and kitchen area.

 

Lauri McCusker Director Fermanagh Trust and Fergal Foy Chairman Brookeborough Playstation
 

 

Sports clubs Knocks Table Tennis, Knocks Grattan Ladies, Knocks Grattan Hurling and Cooneen / Coonian Rambling Group have all been awarded grants to help run various activities and contribute towards equipment costs.

Other groups receiving grants include Cooneen Pipe Band, who were awarded funding for community music tuition and Knocks Drama Group who will use their funding to buy new stage lighting and to cover productions costs of their next play. Cooneen Community Association will use their grant to pay for hall repairs and for their very popular series of social and recreational activities.

A number of groups will receive additional payments, as part of previously approved multi-year capital grants, including Brookeborogh and District Community Association for works at the Station House, Brookeborough GAA for the development of new facilities, and Knocks Community Association for the development of the community trail at Lea Lough.   

 

 

Peter Baillie, Managing Director of Energia Renewables, said, “It’s great to see the wide range of community initiatives that our wind farm benefit fund is supporting, with new and ongoing projects, like the Lea Lough trail, which I visited at the outset. We want our funds to have a lasting legacy in the areas where we operate and, thanks to the Fermanagh Trust, we’re seeing more and more groups coming up with new project ideas to benefit the local community.”

Lauri McCusker, Director of the Fermanagh Trust, added, “With all the challenges created by the Covid pandemic, it’s encouraging to see so much community activity happening in the Brookeborough area.  Through these committed organisations, it is clear there will be a large reach of people supported by this funding. Well done to all those who received grant awards and we wish them every success in their exciting series of programmes.”

The fund will open for applications again in late 2022. For more info CLICK HERE / E: gemma@fermanaghtrust.org / Tel: 028 66 320 210