Sussex ‘Fracking’ village to go solar

The new co-operative, REPOWERBalcombe, plans to install around £300,000 worth of solar panels on the rooftops of local buildings this spring - producing enough clean, homegrown electricity to match 7.5 per cent of the village’s electricity demand.

Long-term, the group’s goal is to match all of the village’s electricity needs with locally generated renewable energy.

The co-operative celebrates the launch of its first project today, with the signing of a lease to host 19kW of solar panels on the roof of a cow shed at nearby family-run Grange Farm.

In exchange for hosting the panels, the farm will receive 33 per cent discounted electricity for the next 25 years.

The money needed - nearly £33,000 - to pay for the pilot installation will come from the founders of REPOWERBalcombe and their friends, with capital repaid in annual instalments.

Investors will receive returns of around 5 per cent a year over the life of the scheme. The project will also generate around £1000 each year for the co-operative’s community benefit fund - a dedicated pot of money set aside to finance energy efficiency measures for local homes and community buildings.

Talks are also underway with another five sites in and around Balcombe. The group hopes to open their first full community share issue of around £300,000 to local investors in time to take advantage of the Sussex summer sunshine.

Terms will mirror those of the pilot project, with 5 per cent returns on investments and any surplus profit - projected to be around £5,500 each year - going towards the co-operative’s community benefit fund.

The combined output of the solar panels at all six sites should be enough to match the electricity demand of around 60 of the community’s 760 homes, with plans already in development for a second, more ambitious wave of installations later on in the year to repower the remaining 700 households.

Spokesperson for REPOWERBalcombe, Joe Nixon said: “We all need energy, but buying dirty fossil power from giant utilities is no longer the only option.

“Advances in renewable technology mean that communities like ours can now generate the energy we need ourselves, locally, in a way that benefits us directly instead of big power companies, and helps the environment instead of harming it. This is win-win for Balcombe and for the planet.”