Elgin energy fair hailed a success
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Experts travelled from across Scotland for the Energy Fair at Elgin Town Hall on Saturday.
Over the course of the day hundreds of householders also attended the free event which has been hailed as a success.
Help and advice was on hand at the venue about saving on home energy bills.
Plenty of information was also available on subjects such as recycling and windfarms.
The event was partly organised by the Joint Community Councils of Moray.
Alastair Kennedy, the JCC's chairman, said: "There was a lot of interaction and positive feelings.
"Our plans are to build on this by taking the Energy Fair to communities across Moray.
"We want to ensure that everybody knows the grants and advice that are available to make our homes warmer, and that we accelerate take-up of the help currently on offer.
"Saturday's event highlighted some big issues that need to be addressed."
Steve Fowles, who's also in the JCC, said: "Home renewables provide good value for money, in addition to being needed to save the planet from global warming.
"The issue is most people don’t have the cash to invest now to save money in the future.
"Making sure that everybody knows about grants will help.
"We also want to investigate community investment into renewable energy schemes, as there is money to be made for investors, and money to be saved by householders – a win-win situation for everyone."
SSE Renewables, AES Solar and Scarf/Home Energy Scotland all gave talks.
But the first talk was given by Richard Lochhead in his role as Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work.
The MSP said: "With such pressure on households across Moray due to rising energy costs, the energy fair was timely and a really informative event.
"I was pleased to give an overview of the work being done by the Scottish Government to deliver a just transition for Moray and the wider North East.
"Thanks to all the organisers for their efforts to bring everyone together and also to the organisations in attendance who were on hand to offer people advice and information."
The event's other organisers were Warmer Homes/Zero Carbon subgroup and Outside the Box, while the event's main funders were SSE and Force 9 Energy.
NurtureNature ran nature crafts for children,
Meanwhile, entries were displayed for The Save the Planet competition, with Burghead Primary declared prize winner.
Hundreds of metres of bunting was made for the event by two members of the Broch Selkies, the Burghead wild swimming group.
