Bath & West Community Energy are actively looking to build partnerships with community groups and organisations.
It is expected that our community partners will be Industrial and Provident Societies (IPSs) or similar Community Interest Companies (CICs) in their own right. This model will be ideal for communities that want greater autonomy and will give them a means to retain greater local identity.
These geographically focused IPSs may raise money locally and offer communities the opportunity to directly control the community fund from their projects.
Our community partners will have contractual relationships with BWCE whereby BWCE will use its critical mass and ability to operate at greater scale to provide development expertise and debt finance.
We worked closely with Corsham Community Energy (CoCo Energy) in the projects that made up our first share issue and are currently working with a Marshfield community organisation to examine the options it has for developing local, community owned renewable energy projects.