Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) were delighted to work in partnership with Bristol Energy Cooperative (BEC)
Rolling out nearly 2MW of community solar across the West of England, part funded by a £500,000 grant from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Green Recovery Fund.
As part of this project, BWCE have delivered 300kWp of community solar across the following 3 school rooftops and 2 leisure centres with no capital cost to the following:
- Bathford Church School, Bathford
- IKB Academy, Keynsham
- Wellsway Lansdown, Keynsham
- Wellsway Sports Centre, Keynsham
- Dragonfly Leisure Centre, Writhlington.
These projects will generate income as community owned energy assets and will reinvest surplus locally through BWCE’s community fund. The installed sites will now also benefit from lower cost clean electricity generated by the sun for the next 25 years, which will reduce carbon emissions and make substantial savings to electricity bills.
Collaborating with Bristol Energy Cooperative has enabled us to scale up the impact of community-owned renewables across the West of England. Together, we’re not only cutting carbon emissions, but also helping schools and leisure centres reduce energy costs and keep more money circulating locally.
— Pete Capener, Managing Director, Bath & West Community Energy
This is the first time we’ve formally partnered with our neighbours BWCE. It’s such a great opportunity to extend the impact of BEC’s mission to build a community-owned solar power station across Bristol. With the help of this grant, we’re bringing people power to even more communities in the area.”
– Helen Martin, CEO of Bristol Energy Cooperative
BWCE and BEC have now received an additional £150K grant each from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Local Energy Scheme to support the installation of further solar projects on schools and community buildings where rooftops were previously considered too small, or larger rooftops where onsite electricity usage was too low to make the community energy model financially viable.
This is a great example of what the community energy sector can achieve. There is no capital cost for the building owners. The solar panels are installed and managed on your behalf, but the cost saving is all yours! Do you have a school or community building that would benefit from a solar rooftop installation? Email your local community energy organisation to enquire whether your roof is suitable and see if we can generate more local power.
For more information visit:
Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) www.bwce.coop or email [email protected]
Bristol Energy cooperative (BEC) www.bristolenergy.coop or email [email protected]
