The UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have today announced twelve winners of energy efficiency grants around the country, but unusually the winners are not businesses or organisations but communities. The communities are in a variety of locations but all share one aim, that of reducing their collective carbon footprint or becoming carbon neutral.
DECC has awarded a sum of up to £500,000 for each of the twelve communities, enabling the implementation of low carbon technologies like solar panels, hydro turbines and energy saving insulation. The financial support is provided through the Government’s Low Carbon Community Challenge and many of the communities involved are hoping to see positive financial returns from the energy measures they install.
Energy and Climate Change Minister, Joan Ruddock, commented on the awards saying, “The huge enthusiasm for the Low Carbon Communities Challenge (LCCC) demonstrates that local people are passionate about building a low carbon future in the UK. Today’s winners will act as a test bed for green action, and show us all what a greener future looks like. This sort of action is vital because over a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating, lighting and powering electrical appliances in our homes. By 2050 this needs to be almost zero and we can only achieve that through the creative initiative of local communities.”
One community celebrating their win today is that of Glogue, Hermon and Llanfyrnach, near Preselli Hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales, who will use the LCCC money to fund two wind turbines. Their scheme is calculated to generate around £300,000 per year which can be ploughed back into further energy saving projects in the community.
Another example of carefully planned spend for their award is Hook Norton, near Banbury in Oxfordshire. The 2500-strong community has been working on reducing its carbon footprint for a number of years and now has the opportunity to spend significant grant money on installing a heat recovery system, solar panels, two community electric pool cars and a ground source heat pump at the local primary school. On top of this they will provide interest-free loans for a whole-house retro-fit of six homes, insulate 40 homes and install solar thermal panels on a further 20, and put a bio-diesel tank in the local brewery to supply bio-diesel fuel for the vehicles of 50 households. All these activities will provide income back in to a rolling low carbon fund so that the community can continue to take action for the next 10 years.
For more information on the LCCC visit the DECC website.