A revolutionary project aiming to fund a portfolio of community solar initiatives has been launched. Community Energy Together (CET) has launched a series of share offers involving five community solar projects around England and Wales. The share offers will allow the community to own solar farms.
The advantages of such schemes are first, energy democracy, that is a wider pool of people can be brought in to support solar power. The more individuals are involved, the more pro-solar activists there are likely to be. Very importantly, the schemes all contribute profits to the local community through support for local causes, especially for energy efficiency and anti-fuel poverty measures. Added to that the investments have an annual target return of 6 per cent on investments.
According to CET: ‘Community Energy Together (CET) is a group of Community Benefit Societies in the UK. Together, we believe in the power of community energy to generate returns for people and the planet’.
The projects that are being supported are Shropshire and Telford Community Energy, Yealm Community Energy, Kent Community Energy, Wight Community Energy and Gower Power You can find more information HERE
The total generation of all the projects is around 36 MW. The support for the share offer is being presented by ETHEX which promotes a number of community energy and other local projects. Their website is HERE
By David Toke
Read about the 100%RenewableUK energy model and how it compares to the Government’s net zero plan. 100%RE gives lower emissions for much lower overall cost! Our new report concludes that a 100% renewable energy mix for the UK would save well over £100bn in achieving net zero by 2050, compared to the UK Government’s current strategy. It would also mean more than 20% lower cumulative carbon emissions in the process. The study, carried out by renowned energy modeling academics at LUT University in Finland, involves hour-by-hour simulation of different scenarios for reaching net zero for UK energy systems. Click HERE for more information, including links to the report itself and accompanying material
You can see the youtube recording of our seminar on 100percent renewable energy for the UK held in London on April 22nd HERE