Moorlands Climate Action hosted a Beginners’ Guide to Community Energy in May in what we hope is the start of the journey to having a project in the Moorlands. The session was led by Mike Kinghan, MBE, chair of award-winning Staffordshire Community Energy (SCE).
Mike outlined SCE’s work so far, which ranged from installing solar panels on council-owned housing to a major project with the University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust at the Royal Stoke. Besides providing the hospital with clean energy at slightly below market price, the project also throws off a financial surplus. This money is then invested in a programme run by Beat the Cold.
Over 500 hospital patients have now been given advice and assistance on reducing their energy costs, obtaining new boilers and other improvements, increasing warmth, reducing fuel debts and accessing benefits that are available to them.
Most community energy programmes are considerably smaller scale than this and Mike outlined the variety of options. They could range from a single building with solar PV to a wind turbine that serves a particular village. The Congleton Hydro scheme, for example, is based on a hydro scheme in the Havannah area of that town and the power generated is used by one single user, the local Siemens factory.
The ending of the feed-in-tariff has changed the economics of community energy, but Mike pointed to the increasing level of government support for community energy schemes, including through the new Great British Energy company.
The group discussed the various options for community energy, including a village running a wind turbine, decarbonising public buildings and incorporating a community element into a commercial solar farm. If you’d like to listen to a recording of the webinar, you can access it by following this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/xOFLZEc_OmkqQ7BZPiJHpD8xFoUlfxEK9bvEEF0b1cFF4q3HdeRIEXrMkqfy5dtv.1KNLeeOzw-lEOPYV Passcode: ss&&Xv1y
What we now need is a community that’s looking for a renewable energy project…..