Successful Solar - Helping Village Meet a 100% Renewable Goal

Southern Solar Ltd. are pleased to have worked alongside REPOWERBalcome getting them one step closer towards their goal to become 100% reliant on renewable energy.

The local energy co-op was set up by residents of the village with the help of carbon cutting campaign 10:10, as a positive way to unite the community around clean, locally-owned power after the controversy over oil drilling by fracking firm Cuadrilla in summer 2013.

REPOWERBalcombe have successfully had 69 solar pv panels installed on top of a cow shed at Grange Farm, Balcombe; totalling 19kWp, paid for by an investment of £27,300 by local members of the co-op. The array will generate a projected 18,514 kWh of electricity and save an estimated 9.794 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year. Renewable electricity supplier Good Energy has been appointed off-taker for the project, purchasing any surplus power not used on the farm to sell on to its own customers.

“It’s great to be involved in doing something for our community and the environment, and nice to see the cow-shed roof being put to good use. Plus we get a reduction on our electricity bills - it really is a win-win-win. The cows don’t seem to have noticed.” - Owner of Grange Farm, Chris Jarvis

"We are delighted to have our first solar panel installation underway, as part of our bigger project to power the equivalent of all our villages electricity using clean and renewable energy. With the continued threat from drilling that has disrupted life in Balcombe, we now truly have a common goal to bring our community together in a positive, responsible way." - REPOWER Balcombe spokesman, Joe Nixon

“Balcombe has come to symbolise the choice Britain faces about our energy future: fracking or clean, renewable energy. It is particularly apt that the community here have installed their first solar panels in the in the same week that Parliament has cast fresh doubt over the whole fracking project in the UK."

“Seeing these panels go up is a major milestone on REPOWERBalcombe’s journey, and these first steps are blazing a trail for other communities to follow. The people here are part of a fast-growing movement to take back control of Britain’s energy future from giant, fossil-powered energy companies. So it is a bit suspicious that the Treasury has now chosen to make things so much harder for this movement by removing tax relief for groups like REPOWERBalcombe in April.”- 10:10’s community energy campaigner Leo Murray