Who we are
Bath & West Community Energy is governed by an experienced and highly skilled board of directors that includes 6 Non Executive Directors elected by the membership – the Chair, Chris Crookall-Fallon plus Louise Daniels, Matt Harnack, Fliss Jones, Jolyon Orchard, Barney Rhys Jones – and BWCE’s Managing Director, Pete Capener who is a non-elected Executive Director. Sonya Bedford and Rupert Atkinson have been co-opted onto the board to provide additional expertise on financial and legal issues.
The board is supported by a growing staff team, with further expertise being drawn in when needed.
BWCE Board
Rupert Atkinson
Rupert is a finance professional and private investor in start-up / scale-up technology companies – many of which are pioneering examples of the positive environmental change being initiated by the private sector.
Rupert had a 30-year career in financial services, as a corporate credit analyst. This experience spans working for a ratings agency (Standard & Poor’s), a long stint in investment banking (at Morgan Stanley), and latterly, a partner and advisor to a private debt fund, lending institutional money to lower mid-market UK and Nordic growth companies.
Rupert graduated from Bradford University in 1985 with a BSc in Geography & Politics, and from the Cass Business School, City, University of London in 1995 with an MBA.
He complements his investing activities with support for a number of university enterprise / entrepreneurship initiatives, including the Launch Lab of City University (Mentor, and member of the Advisory Board) and SETsquared Bath (Mentor).
Rupert Atkinson
Chair, Finance Sub: Coopted Member Director
Sonya Bedford
Sonya is a Partner with Stephens Scown solicitors where she heads up the energy team; a Non-Executive Director at Regen; a Director at Exeter Community Energy, Avalon Community Energy and South Dartmoor Community Energy and vice chair of Green Wedmore. Sonya has an MSc in Renewable Energy from the Centre for Alternative Technology.
Sonya’s legal work includes dealing with all aspects of hydro, wind, solar PV, biomass and anaerobic digestion projects from feasibility and grid connections through to construction and funding. Published papers include – green belt and solar development, local supply, solar thermal, asset management for renewables and optimising AD projects.
Her recent experience also includes acting for over 20 community energy groups – from set up/funding/site acquisition to development and subsequent generation.
Sonya was awarded an MBE in 2018 for services to Community Energy.
Sonya Bedford
Deputy Chair, BWCE Board: Coopted Member Director
Pete Capener
Peter is co-founder and Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy, Deputy Chair of Community Energy England and a Trustee of the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
Peter has worked in the sustainable energy field and on community energy for nearly 35 years, including many years as Chief Executive of the Centre for Sustainable Energy where he originally started in the mid eighties working with schools and communities. Since resigning from CSE in 2002 due to family illness, Peter has worked as an independent advisor on a range of energy efficiency, renewable energy and fuel poverty projects for various government, private and voluntary sector clients, with a strong focus on community action.
Peter has an MSc in Energy Resource Management.
Pete Capener
Managing Director
Chris Crookall-Fallon
Chris is presently Head of Climate Action at a district council in Gloucestershire. Previously he’s worked for a specialist co-operatives and social enterprise business consultancy, run his own renewable energy consultancy business, and for many years worked in Corsham for a specialist climate, energy and sustainability consultancy which he helped to transfer into employee ownership.
Chris has been a long-standing member of Corsham’s transition group and worked on energy projects which contributed to the creation of BWCE. He was a member-elected director of BWCE early in the Society’s life and in recent years he’s supported a variety of community-owned and social ventures from a community cinema to a food provenance tracking system to a retail co-op conversion. He’s also provided consultancy services to the Next Generation project run by Power to Change, which BWCE is participating in.
Chris’s first degree was Engineering Design and Appropriate Technology, he also has a Masters degree in Business Administration, and is a Fellow of the RSA.
Chris Crookall-Fallon
Chair, BWCE Board: Elected Member Director
Louise Daniels
Louise is Head of Communications and Marketing at Thrive Renewables, a renewable energy investment company which owns and operates a portfolio of onshore wind, hydro and battery storage projects across the UK. She is responsible for the company’s reputation and leads on communications with all stakeholders including communities, investors and the industry. Louise has been managing communications activity in renewables and not for profit sectors for more than ten years, specifically managing PR for Good Energy plc, the UK’s first dedicated 100% renewable electricity supply company, and the National Development Team for Inclusion, a social change organisation working to support people at risk of exclusion.
With a total of more than 25 years’ communications experience, Louise’s background is working at a senior level in Public Relations consultancy for FMCG and business to business clients, from small ethical brands to global telecommunications companies. She has a degree in French from the University of Southampton, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education and a Post Graduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, of which she is a member.
Louise Daniels
Elected Member Director
Matt Harnack
Matt provides strategic and operational management support to solar farm owners, asset managers and O&M providers through his business Harness Energy Consulting. His clients own, operate and develop around 5000MW of solar farms and battery storage facilities.
Prior to consulting Matt was O&M Director at British Solar Renewables, running a solar farm O&M business which managed 54 solar farms of 570MW capacity, including BWCE’s Wilmington Farm Solar Array. He has also held Interim Director positions with Ecovision (a rooftop solar O&M provider) and Powervault (a domestic battery storage manufacturer), has run Good Energy’s Feed-in Tariff payment business (providing payments to 138,000 renewable generators), and was Associate Director at Ofgem where he ran the Renewables Obligation and set up the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration
Matt Harnack
Elected Member Director
Fliss Jones
Felicity (Fliss) has a background in energy storage, flexibility and innovative business models. She brings a decade of experience in clean energy, including setting up Everoze’s battery storage business back in 2016.
Felicity is a Trustee of the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and sits on the Customer Engagement Group (CEG) for Western Power Distribution. She is Director of LiveDiligence, a software-as-a-service business enabling radically better due diligence, to accelerate investment in renewables and storage.
Fliss Jones
Elected Member Director
Jolyon Orchard
Jolyon is a co-founder and director of Luminous Energy Ltd, a developer of utility scale solar and energy storage projects. Since 2013 the company has developed numerous solar farms and energy storage projects in the UK and several overseas markets. He participates in all aspects of the development process and has extensive experience of originating and developing greenfield opportunities through to construction.
Jolyon initiated and formalised a co-development agreement with a community energy company which enabled two of Luminous Energy’s solar farms to be financed via a solar bond portfolio raised from community investors (£6m for a 9.2MW project in Kent and £5.8m for a 10.3MW project in Warwickshire).
Jolyon holds a Masters of Environment and Sustainability from Monash University in Melbourne.
Jolyon Orchard
Chair, Development Sub: Elected Member Director
Barney Rhys Jones
Barney is the Asset Management Director for Octopus Renewables’ 1GW Solar portfolio, having spent nearly 14 years in the clean tech sector. He previously worked as Portfolio Director at Oxford Capital, overseeing £350M of investments in solar, anaerobic digestion and grid response.
After graduating with a first class civil engineering degree from Imperial College, London, Barney worked as a field engineer with Schlumberger before joining Bain & Company the global strategy consulting firm. Barney also worked in Telecoms before moving into the renewables sector as with Low Carbon Investors and subsequently as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at Good Energy PLC, the UK’s first dedicated 100% renewable electricity supplier.
Barney Rhys Jones
Elected Member Director
BWCE Staff
Nick Bird
Nick is responsible for co-ordinating BWCE’s community outreach and engagement work. He brings a wealth of experience from over 30 years managing community projects and events, promoting community engagement and delivering training.
He has run community engagement projects in Wiltshire, London and Leeds, worked in a community arts centre and, in a voluntary capacity, helped to develop organisations such as Larkhall Festival and Bath Co-operative Alliance. At a national level he has worked with community organisations to help them better engage with Government and local authorities (Urban Forum) and to network and share knowledge (The Quest Trust).
Nick has extensive experience of delivering training, both as a freelance trainer and as an associate of Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation, Tenant Participation Advisory Service and London Voluntary Services Council. He has also taught for the College of North East London and the WEA.
Nick Bird
Community Outreach & Engagement
Joe Hurley
Joe has 15 year’s experience working on large EPC projects, leading procurement teams and expediting complex projects through to timely completion, all underpinned by a BEng Hons in Computer Aided Engineering.
Since moving to Bath with his family, Joe reassessed his career and decided to utilise his experience in a more purpose driven environment. After volunteering with BWCE’s Community Solar program for 6 months he took on a more permanent position with RenewEV, where he continues to support BWCE’s Community Solar offer, working as a Project Developer to locate and progress community solar installations.
Joe Hurley
Renewable Energy Project Development
Alex Jones
Alex has a decade of operations experience, and has managed complex projects for charitable and commercial organisations. Her background is in education, and she has worked in partnership with universities, embassies and cultural organisations to deliver academic courses in Latin America which explore the social impact of the conflict in Colombia and the recent peace process there. As well as a first class history degree from University of Bristol, Alex has also trained in data law, policy and regulation at LSE.
She currently serves as Non-Executive Director at One Housing Group, a G15 Housing Association with a strong social purpose and over 35,000 residents, and as a Trustee at Children Change Colombia, a charity that defends the rights of children through community-led programmes.
For BWCE, Alex will be helping us strengthen the operational systems and processes needed for this growing organisation.
Alex Jones
Operations Manager
Alex Lockton
Alex Lockton has a wide experience of developing new projects including both new renewable energy and low carbon technologies as well as strategic consultancy. He has worked in the renewable energy industry for 14 years, owning and running businesses which design, install and operate all forms of renewable energy including Solar, Wind, Biomass, Heat Pumps.
In the last 5 years Alex ran a local energy business which was responsible for the design and construction of a large number of community energy projects in the south west including some for BWCE. With John Rawlins, Alex has set up the zero carbon consultancy RenewEV.
For BWCE, Alex’s main focus is developing the new Community Solar PV campaign which identifies commercial and public buildings to host community owned solar systems as well as ground mounted solar arrays. In addition to this, he is providing supply chain and technical support to BWCE’s demand side response pilot Flex Community and is keen to develop new projects involving renewable heat, battery storage and electric vehicle charging networks.
Alex Lockton
Renewable Energy Project & Supply Chain Development
Julia O’Connor
Julia is responsible for delivering a programme of communication, marketing and outreach activities for the ReDream project. She brings over 20 years experience of working in Marketing Communications both in the private sector, but more predominantly within charity and not for profit organisations. She has worked for national charities such as RNIB, Penny Brohn Cancer Care, Hft as well as Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling and Places for People Leisure.
She has a BA Hons in Literary Studies and Post Grad Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She is passionate about writing and creates engaging content, bringing the work of organisations to life so they can reach and benefit more people.
Julia is married with 2 young children, the family enjoy nature and adventures outdoors. They are currently restoring a formerly unloved Grade 2 listed building back into a family home and looking at ways to make their lives more sustainable.
Julia O’Connor
Marketing & Communications
John Rawlins
John’s first degree was in Aeronautical Engineering, where he was awarded 1st Prize in a cross-discipline renewable energy project by the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has worked for a variety of well known companies, completing training as a Chartered Management Accountant and then an Executive MBA at the University of Bath. More recently he has spent 2 years as the Chief of Staff to the CEO of a FTSE 250 energy retailer.
On becoming a father John has sought to use the skills he has accumulated in a more purposeful way. This has brought John back to his roots as an aeronautical engineer, and a focus on renewables.
John is now a partner with Alex Lockton in their zero carbon consultancy RenewEV. For BWCE John works with Alex assessing new renewable energy project opportunities, carrying out financial analysis and liaising with site and landowners.
John Rawlins
Renewable Energy Project Development
Alison Turnbull
Alison Turnbull is one of BWCE’s main project developers working on a freelance basis. She has worked in the renewable energy industry for 20 years, including at AEA Technology on the UK government’s biomass energy research and development programme and at ESD as a renewable energy consultant.
During the latter part of her career, she worked with Ambient Energy Ltd on the development of small scale biomass projects and more recently on the development of small scale pv community schemes with CoCoEnergy and Frome Renewable Energy Co.
Alison was responsible for the project development on a range of BWCE’s solar PV roof schemes and the project management of BWCE’s first demand management programme, Empower, an Innovate UK funded scheme operating in the Corsham community near Bath . She is currently project managing BWCE’s Flex Community and Solar Streets projects and helping BWCE identify and develop new solar roofs.
Alison Turnbull
Innovation Project Management
Operational Partners
Bright Renewables are a community owned asset manager with 83MW of renewable electricity capacity under management. BWCE are one of Bright Renewables founding members and owners.
Bright Renewables manage BWCE’s renewable energy projects.
RenewEV is a zero carbon consultancy set up by Alex Lockton and John Rawlins, members of BWCE’s team. RenewEV is committed to the development of community energy projects and donates 5% of its profits to BWCE.
RenewEV provides BWCE with renewable energy project development services.
External services provides specialist support services to a number of sectors including the renewable energy sector.
External Services provides BWCE with accounting, payroll and HR support.
Neville Registrars provide share registration services for a wide range of clients.
Neville Registrars manage BWCE’s share register and bond register for all bonds issued in 2016.
Ethex provide an online marketplace for positive investment and specialise in community offers. BWCE has run multiple fundraises through Ethex in the past.
Currently Ethex is managing BWCE’s bond register for all bonds issued in 2017.