Welcome to sharenergy.
If you are based in the Rural Regeneration Zone of the West Midlands and would like a real renewable energy plant owned and operated by your community, you have definitely come to the right place.
sharenergy is run by Energy4All, a not-for-profit company owned by the renewable energy co-ops it creates. It is supported by funding from Advantage West Midlands.
If you’ve ever looked at an old weir and wondered if it could be used to generate electricity, or thought about using food waste to make biogas, we want to hear from you!
You could:
- be involved in running your local green electricity generation plant
- invest some money and get a decent return
- provide an energy generation site and earn rent
To find out more about how it works, take a look at our one minute introduction or dive into the details using the links at the top of the page.
November 6th, 2008 | Category: headline | Comments Off
DECC have finally announced what should be the final values of the Feed-in tariffs, here:
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_010/pn10_010.aspx
Overall this looks like very good news for our projects, with a few caveats. Most of the tariffs have gone up by 10% or so, with a few changes of ‘banding’ which may make a big difference to some of our projects. A few headlines for you:
- Hydro bands changed so the cut-off point is at 15kW, not at 10kW. Below this point tariff is up from 17p to 19.9p, above it tariff has jumped from 12p to 17.8p. This will have a major positive impact on schemes in Kington, Leintwardine, Ludlow, Neen Sollars. Above 100kW the rate is 11p (up from 8.5p) which is a boost for the proposed project in Shrewsbury.
- Wind bands have also changed. Some of the sites where we were needing to stick to 500kW machines under the old proposals could now be suitable for larger machines (which are easier to source and maintain) with a new band of 500kW-1.5MW at 9.4p. We campaigned for this during the consultation and it may well be a step change for single community turbines. For sites where 100-500kW machines are more suitable the FiTs are slightly improved to 18.8p (from 16 or 18p).
- The situation with AD is less clear. The 9p FiT has been retained but a new band has come in for sub-500kW generators (which would include all our schemes). Rates currently blank on the DECC site, hopefully they are offering more for smaller schemes as per other technologies
- PV rates have also gone up, which may open up the possibility of community-owned PV…Bewdley are investigating this at the moment.
At the same time the initial rates for the Renewable Heat Incentive consultation have been announced. These are only initial rates and if the FiT consultation is anything to go by they could change quite a bit. Still working through but the headlines are:
- Biomass. Rates of 9p up to 45kW, 6.5p above are proposed. This will help our projects in Woolhope and potentially also Bewdley.
- Biogas. A rate of 5.5p might apply to our schemes in Leominster and Cleobury
- There is also a propsoed rate for biogas injection directly into the gas grid, which might be possible in Leominster, although it is doubtful if the proposed rate of 4p/kWh would be enough to make it financially viable….need to get lobbying again!
February 1st, 2010 | Category: featured, renewables | Comments Off
Community groups in Kington, Leintwardine, Ludlow and Cleobury Mortimer are working together to get community-owned hydro power running on the Arrow, the Teme and the Rea. Sharenergy has funded a feasibility study which is due to report by the end of November. The consultants, RDC of Bath, are looking at the technologies and practicalities involved. Informal meetings have already been held with the Environment Agency to look in detail at the regulatory issues at each site. This work builds on the voluntary work already carried out by the groups finding the sites, contacting landowners and organising the smooth running of the study behind the scenes.
November 3rd, 2009 | Category: hydro, sharenergy | Comments Off
We recieved a large number of really good applicants for the Technical Consultant Job. It was tough choosing but we are delighted to say we have appointed Eithne Flanagan who will start in December. She will be working closely with our community projects helping them drive through the feasibility and planning phase and get their projects built. She’ll introduce herself here when she is in post… for now we are working on a bit of an extension to our tiny office here in Ludlow (above Myriad Wholefoods on Corve St.)
November 3rd, 2009 | Category: featured, sharenergy | Comments Off
