Community Energy

The Transition City Lancaster Energy Group tried over a number of years to obtain land where a community group could set up a windfarm and was very close to succeeding when the rug was pulled out beneath their feet and the land could not obtain permission at that time.

Time has moved on and these days many local groups have succeeded in getting community energy schemes approved and working. This type of scheme allows renewable energy to be provided to the local community and for local investors to look forward to obtaining financial reward for their support. In other words, it means the local community benefits, as opposed to local people buying their electricity from a centralised company that sucks the money out of the local economy.

Perhaps now is a good time for a new Transition City Lancaster Energy Group to be formed to try again. Perhaps this time we should look at solar rather than wind.

Here’s a link to a podcast from http://theowlhoot.com/podcast/ where you will find lots of audio files worth a listen but in particular, one by Andy Extance, who is a freelance science writer and director of Exeter Community Energy (ECOE). In a bid to find a productive outlet for his frustrations surrounding climate change, Andy shares his experience of being within an organisation helping in the transition to green energy while supporting the local community. Click on the title for the show notes once you start to listen.

On November 18th there is also an online webinar about Community Energy by Electricity North West that has some excellent speakers that we can learn a lot from. You’ll find more details here on our events page with a link to their event booking page.

At the moment we are planning a Live Meeting in Lancaster and an Online Meeting shortly after, to focus on Community Energy, so get genned up now and start thinking about how you could get involved.