Shepreth Community Energy Project started late in 2023 as a joint Parish Council and Sustainable Shepreth initiative to see if a community energy project might be suitable for the village. Other villages, with similar schemes were consulted and their experience provided useful guidance on the way forward. An energy usage survey was carried out in March this year to determine current energy use and views on a community energy project.
The almost 90% support for a community energy project encouraged us to apply for a grant to appoint an energy consultant to provide an expert view of what kinds of energy solutions might prove beneficial to Shepreth; their cost and how to finance them; the positive and negative environmental and social impacts; and the best ways to make sure we were providing something of benefit to all the community.
We then sent a formal expression of interest to the Community Energy Fund (CEF), part of the Greater South East Net Zero Hub, and within a couple of days were in touch with Dr John Moore – an independent contractor appointed by the CEF. Dr Moore’s role was to guide us through our grant application to ensure it had the best possible chance of success. We are now working within a framework of suggestions from Dr Moore with the aim of submitting our grant application in October 2024.
If the grant application is successful, we will appoint a community energy consultant who, as stated above, will advise us on what schemes might suit Shepreth. Once we have that we will take a full package of information on costs, risks (financial, environmental, and social) to the PC for consideration. If the PC wishes to move forward with any possible scheme, we will then take the whole package of information, plus PC views on it, to the village for approval/rejection.
If, at the end of this process, we have a project, supported by the Parish Council, Sustainable Shepreth and the village, we will then move to the development stage.
Shepreth Parish Council