South Dartmoor Community Energy was set up in early 2016. We are a not for profit community benefit society with a great team of directors, drawn from the local community.
SDCE’s Aims are to:
- Supply heat/electricity from renewable and low carbon sources;
- Reduce fuel poverty and increase the energy efficiency of buildings within the local community;
- Generate income to support community organisations and projects that improve the sustainability of the Local Community, including through appropriate Community Supporting Organisations;
- Provide funding for further community renewable and low carbon energy generation schemes;
- Enable the local and wider community to share in the ownership of the renewable and low carbon electricity/heat generation projects;
- Increase awareness and understanding of the benefits of renewable energy generation, local ownership of energy generation and energy efficiency.
History
In Autumn 2015, PL:21 Transition Initiative members, Katie Reville and Peter Crone, saw an opportunity to invest in the Portworthy community solar array. They successfully applied for the Community Energy Accelerator Grant from RegenSW and Devon County Council to fast track the creation of a new community energy organisation.
Over the next four months, a team of directors emerged with a passion for promoting community-owned renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions and addressing local sustainability challenges. SDCE is an active member of the Devon Community Energy Network a network of local authorities and community energy groups working in partnership towards a sustainable future.
Over the last eight years there have been a number of challenges, namely the closure of the Feed in Tariff which completely changed the landscape. Instead, we began to explore different business models to make community energy work and benefit the local community, including a housing project and climate action projects.
We have run our free and impartial energy advice service for over seven years, and helped thousands of South Hams residents to make huge savings. We’re currently developing our Retrofit advice service, enabling us to further lower carbon emissions and futureproof inefficient housing.
SDCE is run by a team of voluntary directors. We have lots of ideas for projects and each year we apply for funding to enable us to run these. If you have an idea for a new project, speak to us about whether we can help to facilitate it.
