Work with us: other high consuming sites, such as manufacturing businesses or universities
A private business or university may not have the money up front to purchase their own array of solar panels or another renewable technology, but by working with a community energy organisation they can benefit from using the cheaper, cleaner electricity onsite whilst providing opportunities to the people in their local area.
How does it work?
The community energy group raises the money for the renewable technology through community investment. They install the technology on the host organisation's site at no cost to the host, the community energy group are then responsible for operating and maintaining the technology for an agreed duration (usually 20+ years).
The host pays the community energy group a fixed price, often well below market rate, for the electricity produced. This is known as a 'behind the meter' agreement. Any surplus energy is managed and sold by the community energy group.
Would your building/site be a suitable host?
To make the model financially viable, we look for sites that not only have a suitable layout and design but would use a large portion of the energy themselves. Universities with energy-intensive research facilities, or businesses running heavy equipment in the day, are often suffering from high energy costs and are well-placed for this kind of project.
Setting up a new community energy group
We are interested in hearing from organisations that are ambitious in scale. In 2023 we worked with the James Hutton Institute, Scotland's leading agricultural researcher, whose land has now become home to Dundee Renewable Energy Society's 2.6 MW solar 'meadow' . The vast majority of the energy produced by the solar array is used by the Institute on their Invergowrie campus, and on sunny days this can cover 100% of their energy usage, a brilliant accomplishment for an energy-intensive facility.
Pairing with an existing community energy group
Energy4All can look into pairing you with an existing community group. Reading Community Energy Society are a successful example of this kind of network, they have installed solar PV arrays across a hybrid of council and privately owned sites in the town. These include Reading University, Acre Road Business Park, a charity headquarters and several churches.
Use the button below to send us some information about your organisation what kind of project you envisage, and our team will point you to the relevant Project Manager to discuss your ideas.