More solar panels for the school plus end of decade celebrations for GCN

Many thanks to all those who completed our 'end of decade' survey in May/June. A quarter of village households took part, providing us with a lot of very useful information. Data analysis is well under way and we will publish the results in November as a report to the Parish Council and as a poster. We will also provide individual feedback to each participating household. 

We are also pleased to report that Ashton Hayes Community Energy (AHCEC) is now in the position to invest the money earned so far from Feed-in Tariffs, talks and village visits in more solar PV for the school. While we await the outcome of negotiations with ScottishPower about the grid connection we have taken advantage of the opportunity to pre-register with Ofgem to get a guaranteed tariff for the next 12 months. This required an Energy Performance Certificate for the school, which the energy company has funded.

To celebrate a decade of the Going Carbon Neutral Project we will hold an event on Thursday 28th January at the school. We plan to show a new film that looks back on 10 years of the project, provide highlights from our survey findings and outline our future plans. All are invited and further details will be published later in the year.

Interest in our project beyond the village remains high and Roy Alexander was invited to share what we have learned at three events during Community Energy Fortnight; as a panel member for a Community Energy Question Time event at CWaC HQ in Chester, as a speaker at the Milesecure2050 (a European research project examining community sustainability) conference in Salford and as a workshop contributor at an event at Nesta in London examining the support needs of community projects. Garry Charnock also sits on the Department of Energy & Climate Change Community Energy Contact Group and ensures our views are heard at the highest levels of Government.

Follow us on Twitter @ashtonhayesCEC.