Industry News

News from members March

Sustainable Brampton Energy Action Group
We are the Energy Action Group for Sustainable Brampton. Brampton, North East Cumbria, has a strongly rural character. At its heart is the thriving, yet traditional, market town of Brampton which sits in the middle of a significant rural area, population 15,000. 44% of our economy is dependent on agriculture and within our area is the Lyne Ward which is identified as the third most deprived ward in England in terms of access to services (IMD –geographical barriers) and affordable energy.

Sustainable Brampton was formed in 2004 by a few key activists concerned about the challenges of sustainability in a deeply rural area. It has actively campaigned and raised awareness around sustainability. It has a signed-up membership of 250. From 2008, action has been delivered through four groups – Energy, Food, Travel and Waste.

The aims of the Energy Action Group are:
• To support our communities to “power up and power down” through knowledge understanding and action
• To think long-term as well as short-term and champion a vision in which our area is self-sufficient in terms of energy requirements
• To provide opportunities for volunteers to act in their communities and in their own homes

The achievements of the group so far are:
• Increased knowledge base
• Estimated total community energy profile and consumption through on-going surveys and desktop research
• Estimated available/extractable renewable energy resource.
This has enabled us to conduct a high-level assessment that the potential exists for the area to be self-sufficient. We are continually refining/improving our evidence base to ensure our long-term vision is relevant and to identify emerging issues/problems.

Powering Down (primarily through influencing people to change their behaviour)
• Parish based energy Q&A sessions;
• Community energy events – Energy Fairs ;
• Outreach work with local schools; and
• Leaflet and doorstep campaigns about key energy issues.
We have two key signature projects which are currently being developed and have evolved from the above activities- a super insulation project for the Brampton Community Centre and community capacity building integrated with emerging community planning.

Powering Up
• Initiated feasibility study for 1.2MW community Anaerobic Digestor (based on silage/slurry/FYM)
• Partnered on successful funding bid for development of 75KW “on-farm” AD with carbon capture and storage
• Supported development of local Microgen SME’s
• Supported development of local biomass supply chain

These results have been achieved through a great deal of voluntary commitment, goodwill and resilience, and helped by a good sense of humour. Along the way we have been assisted by local SME’s active in the renewable energy marketplace; local press and media; Envirolink; Energy Saving Trust; TADEA; and many others.

Sustainable Brampton has secured funding from Cumbria Community Foundation, Cumbria County Council, Esmee Fairburn Foundation, and Rural Development Plan for England. Sustainable Brampton has allocated £4000 to the Energy Action Group for 2011/12.

We feel that we will continue to play to our strengths, a committed group of volunteers, the desire of the community to do things differently, and a wealth of support from key agencies.
But we know we cannot achieve our aims alone and we will endeavour to increase our partnerships with key stakeholders in our community, regionally, and nationally to develop meaningful relationships that will help us all to deliver a low carbon future.

Phil Dunn
Sustainable Brampton Energy Action Group.

To find out more, take a look at the Sustainable Brampton website.

Kings Heath Transition Initiative
Kings Heath Transition Initiative (KHTI) in south Birmingham grew out of a GROFUN group that worked together in the spring of 2009. We had had various informal discussions about forming a Transition group and these came to fruition in August 2009. Since then we have gone from strength to strength and now have a mailing list of about 200, and are managed by a core group of 10 people. We have held awareness-raising events, formed partnerships with other groups, made three successful funding applications, held a community consultation, developed a website, and started to earn some money (very useful) by maintaining the planters on the High Street.

Our general aim is to build local resilience and independence from fossil fuels in Kings Heath; to initiate and support local solutions to the twin threats of climate change and peak oil; and to move towards sustainability in all aspects of our way of life.

We formed a partnership with Green Communities in September 2010, and have now got a link to the Carbon Footprint Tool via our website. Together we have produced 500 newsletters that were delivered to homes with cavity walls, giving information on how to improve their energy efficiency. An e-copy was sent to our members to be cascaded on. An energy monitor loan scheme is being revitalised and extended through the library.

We have also received expert support from Green Communities to look at the possibilities of saving energy on community buildings. We have identified some great roofs for P.V. panels and taken note of a local indoor shopping area and a church where significant savings could be made by changing to energy efficient light bulbs. Once we receive the report, the information will be disseminated to encourage the take up of anything that can be implemented in the short term; and fed into our Energy Descent Planning for actions that will take a bit longer.

In addition to our work with the Energy Saving Trust, our other work has been:

• Awareness-Raising - We hold monthly events in a local venue which are either film, cafes, talks or open space events.
• Consulting with the community - We have held a community consultation on the feasibility of a local Eco-Centre, for which we had funding from Birmingham City Council.
• Developing partnerships - GROFUN Growing Organic Food in Urban Neighbourhoods. Groups get together each spring to transform each other’s gardens into food-producing havens.
• 9Carrots - We promote local businesses, and they use 10% of their extra takings on cutting their carbon emissions.
• Highbury Community Partnerships - Rediscovering the old farm, preparing land for planting up as an orchard, and coppicing work.
• Farmers’ Market - We are assisting in the running of the market.

We have obtained funding to develop our future plans for sustainable development. Our ideas on the Eco-Centre are likely to take us in new directions, with the possibility of growing some social enterprises to deliver energy advice services, training, land share, gardening, a farmer’s market stall and other ventures. We are also beginning work on a King’s Heath "Energy Descent Plan", thanks to the pointers already being given to us by our EST Expert Support!

Margaret Healey Pollett
Kings Heath Transition Initiative

For more information see the Kings Heath Transition website or the 9carrots website.

Hydro Turbine Success for Kingussie
Green Communities is pleased to highlight the success of the Kingussie Community Development Company (KCDC) which has been successful in installing a new hydro turbine for their town. The turbine will generate 75,000W of clean electricity each year when it opens in late 2011 – using just water.

The success of the hydro turbine scheme is an important milestone for KCDC, who after a lot of research, had previously concluded that the money made from the turbine wouldn’t justify its expense.

Last year the Feed-in-Tariff scheme, which allows anyone generating renewable energy to sell it into the grid, made the project more viable. Thanks to this, two organisations came on board to provide funding: the European Union’s LEADER fund, which funds projects to revitalise communities, and the People’s Postcode Lottery, which offers grants for environmental projects.

The electricity the turbine generates will go into the national grid. As a result of the government Feed-In-Tariff scheme the turbine should earn KCDC around £15,000 per year.

KCDC plans to put the money generated from the hydro turbine straight back into the community to fund other projects. The company is now looking into the feasibility of building a community wind turbine.