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April 18 2023

Greening Eden Business

Our Story

The ambition of Eden District Council is to reach Net Zero by 2030. To reach this objective the sustainability team and the economic development department decided to launch a scheme that will help businesses in Eden to reduce their carbon footprint but also raise awareness on the impact of their activities on the environment.

We contacted CBEN, a local environmental consultancy, to further develop the idea and to establish a working partnership. The early days was mostly setting up procedure, paperwork, and a budget. Once this was tied up, Eden District Council and CBEN launched the Greening Eden Business Project.

The project is a way to engage with local businesses, bring opportunities to them to receive guidance and support, or for businesses to rethink and redevelop their activities in relation with our climate emergency context.

The hope is that businesses will be become more aware of their impact on the environment and will implement change that will benefit their own business, their customers but also the entire region.

The Challenge

The project presented several challenges in the early stages of the process, setting up a Grant Panel in particular was tricky and caused a few teething problems given the time it took to set up. Looking back we should of done this at an earlier stage as it would’ve freed up time for other areas of the project.

The size of the panel meant that it was tricky maintaining a clear message of their expectations. This would’ve been alleviated had we taken external guidance from someone with deeper experience. However despite the slight troubles, the project has run relatively smoothly and are currently on track to meet our wider goal of reaching Net Zero by 2030.

Our Solution

The project works on a partnership with Eden District Council and CBEN. CBEN undertakes audits for businesses who apply and provide a report of their findings to improve business operations.

Local businesses get in touch with us and then CBEN head out to visit the different sites to estimate their carbon footprint and find solutions to decrease their emissions.

Subsequently, the business can apply for a grant up to £10,000 on a 50% ratio to retrofit or change their operational systems to reduce their carbon footprint. More than 30 businesses have applied to the scheme so far and continues to grow in popularity.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 18 2023

Burneside Community Energy & James Cropper PLC Solar PV

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Our Story

Burneside Community Energy is an inspiring example of the potential synergy between a large public limited company (the paper mill James Cropper PLC) and the local community in Burneside. Both were brought together by a joint vision to reduce carbon emissions and to secure a sustainable source of income to enable further energy-related projects which benefit residents.

The idea was born following a Parish Plan in 2015 called ‘The Vision’, in which ‘energy’ was a topic of ambitious focus for the village. Three people set up a community benefit society; long term resident and Parish Councillor Tony Hill, Phil Davies, and Mark Cropper who was able to provide his expertise on renewables and connect us to James Cropper PLC.

This allowed us to build a good relationship with the company, and led to them offering a 20-year lease and agreement to buy all of the energy generated by BCE. We have never sought public funding for our solar projects; excellent resources and inspiration has been found through Community Energy England’s website and through its helpful officers.

Whilst the Parish Vision provided the community’s mandate for the initiative, there is far more that we plan to do with and for the community. With over 150 local members, we plan to spread awareness and the benefits of BCE much wider to every household in the community.

The Challenge

The key to BCE’s development and success, was done to an agile approach to decision making by the board, the nurturing of a trusted relationship and James Cropper PLC and the willingness of the volunteer board to commit their free time to carry out the necessary project management.

The project was very much like running a business; with nearly £800,000 of members’ investment, it comes with considerable responsibility to it was vital that we had the right people on board with the right intentions. Hiring a part time administrator was certainly helpful and saved us a lot of time throughout the project.

We faced initial teething problems following the initial installation of the The PV system, which tripped on multiple occasions, meaning a lot of time was spent fixing the issues.

Our Solution

Not only has the project seen significant carbon savings made, it has also lead to further community cohesion and benefits. Nearly 1MW of solar PV installed over three phases is now saving nearly 300 tonnes of carbon each year.

Surplus income has been used to decarbonise the local primary school, whilst other funds have been used to fun a Bike4Burneside cycling festival. What’s more, BCE is broadening horizons beyond the original solar project, and has further initiatives in the pipeline. Upcoming projects include supporting the village allotment society and to run a thermal imaging and home energy improvement project throughout the community in 2022.

BCE has also carried out research into installing a district heat network throughout the village and more recently it has undertaken a huge project to investigate whether new residential development planned for the village could use community energy to heat and power all of the low carbon homes.

Funding has been greatly received form Electricity North West, the Rural Community Energy Fund and Power to Change. Most recently, a small grant from South Lakeland Council has enabled BCE to run some low-carbon community projects, engaging with residents on cycling and home energy programmes.

Find out more?

To find out more about the Burneside Community Energy project, head to www.bce.org.uk

April 18 2023

Cheshire West and Chester Leisure Centres Solar PV

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Our Story

Chester Community Energy Ltd started life as the energy working party of Transition Chester, the local group campaigning for a transition to a low carbon economy. They gave us a loan of £300 to set up a Community Benefit Society and so we were ready to go!

The founding directors were an environmental economist, a retired engineer and retired architect with a solicitor as company secretary, so we thought we were well qualified but still faced many challenges in the months and years ahead.

We had contacts in the Cheshire West and Chester Council and with a nearby community energy organisation, Low Carbon Lymm, who provided great help by pre-registering our first project for Feed in Tariff. From these discussions we came up with an idea for the first project: a 50kw capacity solar array on the roof of a leisure centre near the centre of Chester.

Having been successful in applying for the development grant aid, we went through the process of getting detailed layouts, tenders, leases, power purchase agreements, a business plan, registering for VAT and issue a share offer; a monumental task which proved to be a huge learning curve for all of us.

The Government Feed in Tariff coupled with selling all of the generated electricity to the leisure centre, contributed to the financial success of the project, and as such, allowed us to follow up with a further two installations as different leisure centres in Chester.

The Challenge

Given the nature of the project, and despite having the right minds on board, we faced many challenges along the way, but it was a great learning curve for us none the less.

As mentioned above, the process of putting together the business plan, arranging leases and power purchase agreements, was tough and it took up a lot of time and resources. It’s vital to not underestimate this task.

Funding was a huge determining factor for this project, therefore researching grants that were available to us was paramount to ensure the financial viability of the project. The development grant aid gave us the kickstart funding we needed, and gave invaluable advice on our first share issue. We successfully raised £180,000 and we now have 90 member shareholders, many of whom are active in the organisation.

It’s critical to source a specialist contractor with this type of project. We were fortunate to work with the same company on all three projects, by tender on the first one and by negotiation on the next two. They were great in working around timescales and arrangements with building managers to produce installations with good performance, on time and on budget.

Once the installations have been built, it’s important to establish and effective monitoring system which keeps everyone informed about progress and highlighting issues before they become a problem.

Our Solution

While our initial motivation was to play a part in reducing local carbon emissions, we have also now seen the broader benefits of Community Energy. We now have 90 members who have participated in the running of the organisation and setting our priorities for further projects.

To date, 428 Megawatt Hours of electricity has been generated and over 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions have been saved. The installations are monitored by a system that was installed with the solar PV panels, which can be easily accessed and shared online, this allows us to highlight any issues with the performance of the panels.

The Feed in Tariff and sale of electricity provides a predictable income which has allowed us to invest in future projects and to set up a Community Benefit Fund, now £5,000 each year, to help community groups with their own energy saving projects.

We’ve also been able to explore opportunities to work in local schools and fund new projects such as LED lighting in community buildings, and a major community owned solar farm near Chester, with the hope that it forms a model for future collaboration on larger projects.