Question
Reading have a Community Energy Fund, allowing charities and others to apply for grant funding to pay for solar panel installation and other green energy initiatives. This money is raised from local investors. Are Wokingham Borough Council planning to launch a similar scheme?
Minutes:
Question:
Reading have a Community Energy Fund, allowing charities and others to apply for grant funding to pay for solar panel installation and other green energy initiatives. This money is raised from local investors. Are Wokingham Borough Council planning to launch a similar scheme?
Answer
I am very pleased to say that a paper covering the creation of a Wokingham Community Energy Fund will be voted on by the Executive during its meeting next week.
The community energy fund is not a new concept. The Reading fund was founded in 2016 and other places that have them already include Sheffield, the City of London, Lincoln, Bristol, Islington, Oxford and Tees Valley.
Community Energy Funds serve multiple purposes. They increase the generation of renewable energy, enable sites that otherwise might not be able to afford or might not be of interest to large commercial backers to generate low-cost energy onsite and also create funds to improve communities, all underpinned by community ownership and community decision making.
The funds we are proposing would be backed by an organisation called Energy4All and initially supported by Reading Community Energy. Energy4All have been operating similar schemes since 2002 and currently do so for 28 different councils and other organisations around the country.
Energy4All, are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, will organise and facilitate the Community Share Offers which are used to then fund the different initiatives and installations as well as their upkeep.
Any profits made from the sale of energy, either to the National Grid or to the building operator, are then either paid as a dividend to investors or are ring fenced and used to support other sustainability efforts within communities. In recent years that dividend has typically been between 4 and 4.5% annually.
This scheme will help us reduce carbon emissions. It will help us to take additional control of our energy generation, storage and distribution. It will enable energy generation where currently there is none, and potentially provide a source of low-cost energy to some community and charity organisations.
It is a great opportunity to engage our communities and I look forward to the Executive voting on it next week, and I hope it will pass.
Supplementary Question:
What types of buildings would Councillor Murray think are most appropriate for the funding to be used from a Community Energy Fund?
Supplementary Answer:
Evidence from Reading suggests that installations typically are valued somewhere between £200 and £5,000, so it is mostly going to be small PV installations, although there are opportunities to go to larger alternative energy projects as well. As a result of that it is mostly likely to be as you say community and charities that will come forwards, charity offices, potentially churches, libraries, youth clubs, activity centres. I would love for the local Scout troops and Guide troops and everything else to come forward and get solar panels put on to their buildings as well. It will help them reduce some of their costs. It is also a great opportunity for some of our Town and Parish Councils to add some solar PV to some of their own buildings, and I know Woodley Town Council have already done that with a few of their buildings as well. I think it is a great opportunity for a load of different organisations across our Borough and I look forwards to seeing those bids come in.