A COMMUNITY energy scheme that is hoping to build a wind turbine near Lampeter is celebrating after a Llangeitho family invested £40,000 into the scheme.

Grannell Community Energy has raised over £150,000 of the £700,000 target to be able to build the 500kW turbine with a £40,000 investment from the Bodsworth family helping boost the target.

David Bodsworth, his wife Sue and his mother, moved to the Llangeitho area in 2011 from Berkshire, with Mr Bodsworth saying the family wanted to make a contribution to the local community.

He said: “After a long career in the oil and petrochemical industry and seeing the need for alternative energy sources, I was keen to invest and be part of the renewable energy sector.

“As a family, we also wanted to be part of the local community and contribute whichever way we could to local projects, and this project with Grannell seemed to be the perfect fit and balance for our needs.

“As oil becomes scarcer, finding alternative oil sources inevitably has more of an environmental impact, this means the time has come to look at and accept the need for sustainable sources of energy if we are to keep the lights on in future.

“I believe we are a very wasteful society and we really need to change the way we live and behave.

“I believe that using and investing in green energy is the way forward.”

Grannell is hoping to start building the 50-metre tall turbine in 2019 if the £700,000 needed can be raised by 14 December this year. The turbine would then be completed for December 2019 if the group’s timeframe is met.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition tomorrow