Egni Coop and Haverhub have teamed up to install a 30kw solar system on the iconic building in the heart of Haverfordwest.

Haverhub, located in the old Post Office building, is a gradually developing creative social enterprise, aiming to rekindle the town with a collaborative workspace, event centre and meeting rooms.

Jerry Evans from Haverhub said “We are so pleased at the reaction around town and on Facebook to the solar installation. It really does cheer people up when they see something positive like this. We are trying to do what we can for the environment – it should save around eight tonnes of carbon each year – that’s the benefit for the environment – and it reduces our running costs spent on electricity.

We are an important venue for volunteering in the town and have had some real positive outcomes already – at least 5 of our past Haverhelpers have gone from long term unemployment to finding permanent jobs away from Haverhub. We just offered them a place where they could regain confidence and get used to work again.”

Kaz Deverson from Haverhub said “We want to be a low carbon venue and through working in partnership with Egni Coop, we’ve made a big step in that direction. Climate change is a high profile issue and Haverhub wants to be at the forefront in our town in helping to tackle this issue. Haverfordwest is always sunny so we’re hoping for lots of clean, green energy!”

Rosie Gillam from Egni said “Egni provides community owned solar PV to schools, businesses and community groups across Wales: addressing climate change, providing educational resources and keeping money local. We’re delighted to be helping such an awesome community space as Haverhub reduce their carbon footprint…. and their bills!

It’s also great to hear that Welsh Government is also helping with refurbishing the building – to help with the space’s continued renovation, the Welsh government has helped with a grant of £250,000 from the community facilities programme, which helps provides grants for organisations to buy and improve community-run buildings and projects. There’s a full update in the Western Telegraph on Haverhub’s recent successes here”

People across the UK really want to engage in climate change – as demonstrated by our Share Offer which now reached a staggering £1.4m, near our £1.5m target. You can join us here www.egni.coop

For more information, visit https://haverhub.org.uk and www.egni.coop

Notes for Editor

Egni Co-op is a community organisation which funds and manages PV installations in Wales. It was set up by Awel Aman Tawe  (AAT), a community energy charity which has been operating for 20 years. Our prime drivers are tackling climate change and engaging people in energy.

The team behind Egni have also delivered the award-winning Awel Co-op, a 4.7MW community wind farm which was commissioned in Jan 2017. It was funded by a £5.25m loan from Triodos Bank and a £3m community share offer www.awel.coop

Egni was recognised as the Outstanding Renewable Energy Project in an award sponsored by Welsh Government, at the Sustainable Academy Awards and our parent charity, Awel Aman Tawe, was recognised as Environmental Organisation of the Year in the Social Enterprise UK Awards.

Feasibility funding. We especially want to thank the Welsh Government Energy Service and Sustainable Communities Wales for funding the feasibility costs. This de-risked the projects and enabled us to fund the solar installation costs from our Share Offer which has now raised £1.4m. People can join our coop and invest from £50 – please visit www.egni.coop for more info and we hope you join us to help tackle climate change.

As part of its new Share Offer, Egni secured the Feed in Tariff (FiT) subsidy for rooftop solar panels on sites across Wales which will have an installed capacity of about 3,000 kW. This is the largest allocation in the UK and will be the biggest rollout of rooftop solar in Welsh history. The sites include local businesses, community centres, universities, a golf course, a brewery, rugby clubs, leisure centres and schools.

Egni will deliver:

• Projected 4% return
• 3-4,000kW of new solar on roofs
• Carbon savings of 25,000 tonnes over the project lifetime
• Educational Fund of £2m for work in schools and universities on climate change projects
• Electricity savings of £8m for the sites over the next 30 years