We’re celebrating Earth Day with a thankyou to all our Egni Coop members, installers, councils and the onsite staff who have helped us install 2.3 MW of community solar across roofs in Wales so far….
Our sites include schools, community buildings and businesses. It’s a sunny day today so those sites are absolutely flat out generating clean power and reducing our carbon emissions.
You can see below one of our sites, the Phoenix Centre in Swansea, which as of midday today, was completely supplied by the solar on the roof so hasn’t imported any electricity from the grid since 7am when the solar really kicked in. In fact, the Phoenix Centre has already exported 42.2 kWh this morning from the panels onto the grid which makes the power supply for all of us a bit cleaner and greener!
Rosie Gillam, Egni Director said “Our sites are also saving money on the electricity bills which helps keep them going in these difficult times when every penning of running costs counts – we estimate this saving totals £88k this year. So it’s a boost to the Welsh economy – retaining value from ‘Welsh’ sun in Wales! Many of our sites are involved in the frontline of tackling Covid19 – schools staying open for children of key workers or community centres who are supporting outreach work to vulnerable members in the local area. We also have panels on two care homes in Newport. These savings are really important.”
Dan McCallum, Director added “We’re also delighted to announce that our sister co-op, Awel, is making payments totalling £170k this week to our 800+ members. Awel had its highest annual generation figure so far last year of 11,832 MWh, enough to meet the annual electricity supply of over 3000 homes. These members who’ll be getting payments include local community organisations such as the two local Food Banks (CATCH in Ystalyfera and Y Pantry in Pontardawe), the Food Hub at Canolfan Maerdy in Tairgwaith and key community organisations such as Cwmllynfell Millenium Hall, the Black Mountain Centre, Ystradowen Community Centre, Cwmaman Community Centre, Dove Workshops and Glynneath Training Centre which are really helping to pull our communities through this crisis.”
Earth Day also reminds us that community energy is a vital way of making our communities more sustainable so they can cope better with a crisis such as Covid19. But also that climate change must not be forgotten. It’s vital we plan for more solar installs to start as soon as the construction lockdown is lifted. The Government has done its part by extending the Feed in Tariff for community energy projects till the end of September. Our Share Offer has raised £1.8m so far towards our target of £2m which includes refinancing a loan from the Development Bank of Wales – you can join us here www.egni.coop and make future Earth Days an even bigger celebration.