Community groups, businesses and VIPs celebrate community energy

A community energy feast was held near Exeter last night to celebrate the volunteers working tirelessly to establish community-owned renewable energy projects in the region, and promote a new £33,000 fund available to community energy groups in Devon.

These projects are being set up to benefit local communities by generating low carbon, low cost energy and a 20-year income stream to make them more vibrant and sustainable places to live. The event was hosted by Regen SW, a not-for-profit that works to revolutionise the way we generate, supply and use energy, as part of Regen’s Community Energy Accelerator project.

The evening’s food was sourced from local farms and suppliers using renewable energy. The wine was kindly donated by Natursave Insurance who support many of the community energy groups locally.

Jodie Giles, senior project manager at Regen SW said: “We were delighted that so many guests from community energy groups could join us last night because we have been working with them for over a year providing support, funding and training. We wanted to thank them for putting so much of their own time and energy into doing something really valuable for their communities and support them with further funding, as well as fund new groups just starting out. The atmosphere was great and it was good to catch up with old friends and new groups to share great food and ideas for the future”.

This event was part of Regen’s Community Energy Accelerator project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Devon County Council. Some of the community groups who attended have taken part in a series of training events over the last year to learn about legal structures, engagement and publicity, business models, share offers and writing tender specifications, and many have benefited from grant funding to further their community energy projects. The grant funding is vital to help groups secure a guaranteed subsidy, called the Feed in Tariff, for their projects before government proposals to reduce the subsidy by up to 87% come into effect in January 2016.

Devon County Councillor Roger Croad, Cabinet Member for Community and Environmental Services sad: “Over £300m and £400m is spent on energy in the north and south of Devon respectively, all of which disappears out of the local economy. Continuing our support to community energy groups through the new £33,000 fund will help build firm foundations for communities to work together to generate their own energy.”

You can find more information about this project and the new funding for community energy groups by contacting Jodie Giles jgiles@regensw.co.uk