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Community Energy. What is a community scheme ? Various options How our generation will change The community opportunity The Gwent Energy way Some of our schemes. Variations on community. Not every community organisation wants the responsibility
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Community Energy • What is a community scheme ? • Various options • How our generation will change • The community opportunity • The Gwent Energy way • Some of our schemes
Variations on community • Not every community organisation wants the responsibility • Community centres want to concentrate on its core services • 4 main community models to choose from ? • Owned by one of the big six standard £1k per MW to parish council • Part or all of scheme owned by local group from their own funds • This is the Gwent Energy CIC model • Community builds its own takes on risk, work and expense • Community building has a rent a roof gets free power
Brighton Power Station in 1882 3 kW output Powered 16 street lamps One hours light bulb cost a weeks wage Efficiency > 0.1% Coal / wood fired steam engine “State of the art” Owned by the council
Brighton Power Station today 420 MW output High reliability One hours lighting costs 1/40,000 weekly wage Efficiency @ 50% Combined cycle gas turbine “state of the art” Depends on cheap gas powers for 1.5 million homes
Brighton Power Station @2020 Wind for bulk generation PV for daytime peak load AD for intermittency Domestic CHP Storage need
The Gwent Energy Way • Many community organisations don’t want the responsibility • Gwent Energy can fund, install and operate for them • They get free electricity plus a surplus share • We take on the responsibility of admin, loans and maintenance • We fund these from our investors club • Our investors are : • People who use the facility we install on • People in a Transition Town organisation • People who support the resilient community ethos
Solar farms have a lot of open space between the panels Huge scope to develop habitats for local wildlifemajor improvement over the usual “green desert”
A sustainable future ? Fossil fuel will be with us for some time due to cost and versatility All onshore renewables should be owned by the community
Shares or loans • Shares more “ownership” than a loan • Shares more expensive to issue then loans • Loans more suited to small schemes • Shares have less security for the borrower • Dividends are at discretion of directors • Loan repayment is a contractual requirement • In a winding up shares are unsecured creditors • With loans you are a secured creditor
Community energy projects • Some examples of Gwent Energy Projects • 3 different community models • St Arvans Hall 4 kW solar • Bridges community centre 10 kW solar • Ty Castle community solar farm
St Arvans village hall 4 kW PV system for village hall funded by hall users Gwent Energy helped on raise funds System administered by hall committee
Bridges Community centre http://solarshow.net/solarfox/show/?bridges Bridges owns the system but we handle the loans In return for a portion of the FIT income
Ty Castle Community Solar Farm • 32 kW on a chicken farm • Cost £30,000 generates 29,000 kWh per year • Transition Monmouth members loaned the money to Gwent Energy • Gwent Energy owns and administers the installation • Surplus income funds events like Eco Open Doors