On Wednesday, we joined the The Rural Energy Hubs project team who met in Brae for a quarterly review with the project funders Innovate UK. The project team involve Shetland Islands Council, Aquatera, EMEC, Community Energy Scotland and Orkney Islands Council and spent the morning with Innovate UK to share experiences and learnings from the project that has spanned from Spring 2023 up to October 2025.

In the afternoon, the group headed to Tingwall Airport for a site visit with the HISAV team who, in partnership with EMEC, are testing the use of Windracers' heavy lift drones for inter-island transport of freight, helping to build a design case of enabling delivery of essential items to rural communities using drone technologies which will have a much lower carbon footprint. We needed hi-vis jackets to go airside so used the chance to try out our new branded e-bike hi-vis jackets!

It was a great chance to hear from Innovate, whom we are grateful for funding the project, as well as the project team from Aquatera, SIC, OIC, CES and EMEC who have delivered the project.

After the visit to Tingwall we headed back to Brae, ready to welcome the Expert Community of Practice (ECOP) group, a community transport network involved in the REH project combining community development groups in Shetland and Orkney. The network had a chance to meet with Innovate and present their actions and learnings from the project then had a sneak peek visit to the Brae Rural Energy Hub building.

Our Engagement and Development Officer Jade has been joining monthly meetings with the ECOP group which has been fantastic in knowledge sharing and support around managing community transport from rural communities already taking part in this work.

On Thursday, Jade attended the Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ) meeting hosted in Lerwick, bringing together partners from Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides all working towards the islands becoming lighthouse communities in the energy transition. Jade delivered a presentation providing an update on the Brae Hub and the services it will offer to accelerate decarbonisation, a key aim of ICNZ.

The Brae Rural Energy Hub is part of this initiative through the Islands Community Action Network (ICAN) and being a host space for a Community Resource Centre. This allows the Brae Rural Energy Hub to join monthly meetings with other community organisations over these islands, sharing information and knowledge around climate action activities. As a Community Resource Centre, the BREH will use information and resources from this network at the Hub to make them accessible to the community. You can find out more information about ICNZ here.

After a day of preparations on Friday, we attended the Climate Festival at Clickimin, organised by the Shetland Islands Council. We had an excellent day talking to the public about the Hub and services we will offer, as well as listening to some of their potential ideas. The event also gave us a brilliant chance to network with other exhibitors and keep up to date with everything happening in Shetland around climate action and energy efficiency.

It was a fantastic week of networking, and we are so excited to share more updates and open the Hub over the next few months.