This week the government has provided some potentially good news for the solar industry. Ed Davey, who is the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, launched The Urban Community Energy Fund as part of the Community Energy Strategy.
This fund has been set up to make loans and grants available to local communities so that they can install renewable energy schemes including the likes of wind turbines and solar panels.
The strategy will also help communities transfer from one utility energy supplier to another.
An urban community could receive as much as £150,000 from the £10 million fund. These monies could, for instance, be used towards constructing a solar farm in the locality with the generated energy being used to provide electricity to local residents that perhaps could not have afforded to install solar panels on the roofs of their own homes. In doing so, people could see their electricity bills reduce.
There is also to be a £100,000 prize for a competition that local communities can take part in that come up with an innovative way of reducing their energy output and saving money.
Apparently, in a survey carried out by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), in excess of half of those people taking part in the survey stated that the main reason why they would be prepared to take part in schemes that save energy in the community would be if they were able to save money. Also, 40% of people surveyed were agreeable to participating in a scheme that would involve moving from one energy supplier to another and becoming active in a community energy scheme.
This government initiative appears to have been well received by the solar industry so it will be interesting to monitor its progress. We will continue to provide updates to our readers.
As always, your comments are most welcome.
