Community Energy Project update 17th March 2024
Thanks to all those who came to the village hall on 8th March. A superb turnout and wonderful enthusiasm for a community energy project. Apparently the bar takings were good too.
Charsfield Community Energy is now a sub committee of the Parish Council and will be responsible for making the application to the Dept of Energy Security and Net Zero for funding. The sub committee will report to the Parish Council on a monthly basis or more frequently if necessary.
As part of the funding application we need to send out an ‘invitation to tender’ to consultants this week, commencing 18th March.
Part of the application process requires us to have made preliminary approaches to local landowners to find out if they would like to be considered as part of the project.
It is important for the landowners to understand that they would have the potential to receive a significant new revenue stream from rental of grade 3b land and greatly reduced energy costs if they wanted to join the Community Energy project. The cost of the installation would be covered by the project through the investors.
It is also crucial that the landowners are made aware that by expressing an interest in being part of the project they are in no way committing to anything.
The initial funding of £40,000 is purely to undertake a feasibility study. Part of the study is the engagement of and discussions with the community and landowners.
If the feasibility study is positive then the Community Energy team would be eligible to apply for Stage 2 funding of £100,000 to take the project to the next level.
If you know of any local landowners who might be interested to hear more about the Community Energy Project then please ask them to contact the team on charsfieldenergy@gmail.com
At this stage an email from the landowner just saying “Yes, I’m interested in being part of the Charsfield Community Energy project.” Is all that we require.
There are a couple of deadlines that we have to make so we need to move swiftly on this first request.
Any help with this is much appreciated.
Best wishes
Charsfield Community Energy Committee
charsfieldenergy@gmail.com