Merthyr Town Football Club have struck a winning goal in their battle to reduce their carbon footprint. They have teamed up with Egni Co-op to install 30kW of solar panels above the main stand at the football stadium. Both organisations are co-operatives which means they are owned by their members and all surpluses go into achieving their core aims.
Double BAFTA-Cymru winner Mike Harrison, has made a new film about the installation funded by Sustainable Communities Wales
Alex Ferraro from Egni said “We believe that Merthyr Town Football Club is now the greenest football club in Wales. We’ve also got solar panels on a number of other sporting venues including Cwmgors Rugby Club, Bryncethin Rugby Pavilion, Garnant Park Golf Club, Cymmer Community Swimming Pool and the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales. We’d like Wrexham Football Club owned by Hollywood stars, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to follow Merthyr’s lead!”
Rob Davies from Merthyr Town Football Club said “Tackling climate change and reducing our energy costs are very important to the club. We are delighted with our new solar panels from Egni Co-op. We hope solar power will provide even greater footballing energy for the Martyrs. We look forward to the sunlit uplands of the future!”.
The project has been brought about through a strong partnership which also included Merthyr County Borough Council, Sustainable Communities Wales, Welsh Government Energy Service and the Football Foundation.
Egni’s Share Offer is still open and has raised £4.4m of its £4.6m target to date. All sites are backed by the Feed in Tariff. Further information is available on www.egni.coop
About Egni Co-op
Egni has installed 4.3 MWp of rooftop solar on 88 schools, community buildings and businesses across Wales. It’s now the largest rooftop solar co-op in the UK. www.egni.coop
All the sites are backed by the Feed in Tariff. Egni is refinancing our loan from the Development Bank of Wales with co-op shares as this is at 5% interest whereas co-op members invest at 4% interest. This means that there is more surplus going into climate change education projects in Welsh schools.
Here’s a recent film made by double BAFTA Cymru winner, Mike Harrison about the largest rooftop solar project in Wales on the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome in Newport https://youtu.be/ZC80dcRmla0
The team behind Egni Co-op 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.
In 2019, Egni Co-op won Outstanding Renewable Energy Project in an award sponsored by Welsh Government & Awel Aman Tawe was recognised as Environmental Organisation of the Year in the Social Enterprise UK Awards.
For further details of Egni, please contact Dan McCallum 07590 848818
About Sustainable Communities Wales (SCW)
SCW works with community organisations across the country to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. They reduce their emissions and act as an example of sustainability for the whole community. Funded by the Welsh Government’s Rural Development Programme, SCW is delivered by a consortium of Welsh energy efficiency experts, led by Severn Wye Energy Agency. For more information, visit sustainablecommunities.wales
About Welsh Government Energy Service