As an increasing number of Climate Emergencies are declared across Wales, Community Councils are taking the lead in installing renewable energy.
A number have worked with Egni Coop to install solar panels.
Dan McCallum, Egni’s co-director said “We’ve worked with a number of brilliant community councillors who want to take a lead on climate change. Community Council often own community centres which are well used by local voluntary groups. They are important sites as solar panels there are very visible to many people within the area who use the facilities. Egni Coop wants to reduce electricity costs for those buildings and engage people in climate change action.
We’ve been really impressed as well with the degree of care that Community Councils have taken. East Williamston Community Council had detailed discussions with us before we installed a 10kw system as did Hirwaun and Penderyn Community Council where 4kw has just been installed – generation on Hirwaun Hall so far can be seen here – 30kg of CO2 has been saved.
Penllegaer Community Council went to visit on our the existing Egni site at Dove Workshops to assess the quality of the installation – 4kw on their Hall will be fitted in the next few weeks. Dove Workshop’s building where we have a 21kw system is owned by Onllwyn Community Council. Generation at Dove can be seen here. Another of our sites, Seven Sisters Community Hall which is a larger 30kw install is also owned by the local Community Council.
We have another 5 Community Council sites which we finalising at the moment with legal agreements for the solar between Egni and the Council – we hope to announce and install those before Christmas.
Whilst these sites may be relatively small, they mount up and are in the heart of their communities. It also helps clean up the grid as any electricity not used on site is exported onto the grid. It’s also a good way to support Welsh jobs are all our installers listed below, are local.”
Community Council Sites
| Site | kw | Installer |
| Hirwaun village hall | 4 | Urban Solar Ltd |
| East Williamston Community Hall | 10 | Preseli Solar Ltd |
| Penllergaer village hall | 4 | Caplor Ltd |
| Seven Sisters Community Hall | 30 | Solarfit Ltd |
| Dove Workshops | 21 | Solarfit Ltd |
| Total | 69 |