Meet Archie, the central character in an inspiring example of community energy next door to the Moorlands. Archie is an Archimedes screw, installed by Congleton Hydro Community Energy to generate electrical energy from the potential energy of water flowing down from the top of Havannah Weir on the River Dane. Now successfully established, the Community project has recently secured the necessary funding for their sister Solar Community project and are forging a promising future with the production of low carbon energy for schools and local businesses.
Even before the establishment of MCA, some of our future members were gazing admiringly across the county boundary at Congleton's intrepid first steps. They were of course blessed with a suitable water potential but we naively thought that if they had water we were well placed for wind. How wrong we were! At that time the government was opposed to onshore wind, as were many local politicians, so we put the idea on the back burner - to coin a hopefully antediluvian phrase.
Some years on, the situation has changed with the new government's recent lifting of the onshore windfarms ban and their mission to have a fully decarbonised power system by 2030. The proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework increase the likelihood of renewable projects being approved and both the County and the District are offering seed funding to community energy projects.
Has the time come for Moorlands communities to develop their own community energy projects, based on either solar or wind? (The rivers in the Moorlands do not typically have a steep enough fall to support hydro.) Certainly such projects have been building up a head of steam, as reported by Community Energy England, the not-for-profit company set up 10 years ago to represent the community energy sector, and who now represent over 300 such organisations.
We appreciate the scale of such projects and the need to bring together a dynamic team of dedicated enthusiasts with a varied range of expertise to get them off the ground. We do know that on its own MCA would not have the muscle to attempt such a project but maybe we can play our small part in a larger collaboration? If you agree and think you or others could contribute, please contact us via