GMCR has finalised our offer to schools and community buildings. We will provide free solar panels and a discount of 20% on the cost of the electricity generated by the panels.

Once we have raised investment from the community to pay for the cost of installing the panels, our ongoing income will come from the sale of electricity to the sites, the export tariff (for any electricity the site doesn’t use which goes into the National Grid), and the Feed In Tariff (the payment received by generators of clean energy).

Our ongoing expenditure will include insurance, maintenance and administration, and share interest payments to members who invested, after which surplus profits can be saved as reserves and/or distributed to community projects to reduce carbon emissions.

We have submitted an application for a grant from the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC’s) Urban Community Energy Fund (UCEF) to help us bring our project to a state where it is investment ready. If successful, the grant will see us receive funding for feasibility studies, initial legal work, community consultation, financial modelling and planning advice.

This month, two friendly schools have supported our project by allowing us to have installer site visits, so we can select a partner to deliver the installation of our solar panels. We would like to thank the schools involved and all the installers who expressed interest in our project and submitted quotes.

We would like to tell you something interesting happened this month, but it hasn’t. Unless talking to people and poring over spreadsheets counts? No, thought not.

GMCR helped to organise the inspiring Powering Up North conference at the Friends Meeting House, Manchester, on 26 February 2015, where the following key themes were discussed:

Opportunity – exploring the potential for community energy in the North. Highlighting the multiple benefits this can bring, not just lowering carbon, but bringing social change and levering investment into renewable energy infrastructure.

Challenges – examining the issues and challenges, are they different from the South, if so, how and why?

Co-operation and networks – the keys to success in community energy are partnerships, collaboration and co-operation.

Support – working together to make it happen, delivering the full potential of community energy together.

For more information, please see http://claspinfo.org/powering-up