Do you want to help lower Belper’s carbon footprint?

Belper Community Energy (BCE) is a Belper-based group of individuals with a shared commitment to implementing renewable energy for community benefit in the Belper area.

Formed during the summer of 2022, we are grateful for the support of Belper Town Council and Transition Belper in getting us set up as an organisation.  We are working on a website which will be up and running soon, and we expect to become incorporated as an independent Community Benefit Society (BenCom) early in 2023.

We have an exciting year in front of us.  For the time being we are concentrating on large rooftop solar opportunities, and are at the early stages of identifying potential rooftop sites and motivated site owners.

We have decided to work as volunteers with Big Solar Co-op (BSC), a specialist co-operative (under the wing of Sharenergy) who share our objectives and provide training and tools for design and assessment.

For more info on BSC see  https://bigsolar.coop/

The contributions of BSC and BCE will be:

• Identifying potential sites/owners – BCE
• Engaging with site owners, info gathering and preliminary assessment and design – BCE + Site owner
• Detailed design/assessment and shortlisting – BSC + BCE + Site Owner
• Formal negotiations leading to contract and implementation plan – BSC + Site owner
• Installation and post-implementation support – BSC
• Continuity of local support/liaison – BCE

If you can contribute to this new and exciting project, please contact BCE via info@transitionbelper.org

By Tony Cooper