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Sun-sational: SELCE celebrates success of second solar share offer

Co-operative welcomes 50 new investor members

We couldn't stretch to having a firework display but the SELCE team was in high spirits on Tuesday after receiving official confirmation that our fundraising target had been reached - three days before the close of our second community share offer.

We are hugely grateful to all new and returning investors who have contributed to our revised target of £120,000. It is very heartening to know that in these times of post-Brexit uncertainty, many people continue to share our vision of developing a fairer and greener energy future.

We'd also like to give a special vote of thanks to Dr Giovanna Speciale (who has now officially taken on the role of SELCE's CEO) for her tireless commitment to the project and for meeting a succession of extremely tight regulatory deadlines, often against the odds.

Three more primary schools in SE London - Bannockburn in Plumstead and Deansfield and Alderwood in Eltham - will now benefit from solar energy and reduced electricity bills over the next 20 years. The three schools will take our total generating capacity up to 327 kWp over our seven solar sites.

We are now in the process of finalising the schools' lease agreements and hope to start installing the solar arrays in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are very pleased to be able to tell you that the solar array has now been installed on Charlton Park Academy (pictured below), the final school of four to benefit from our first community share offer. More information about this and other SELCE activities can be found on the news page of our website here.

Other options for keen investors

If you were too late to invest in SELCE's second share offer, all is not lost. A number of community share offers are still available and we have highlighted four organisations below that we think are doing really first-class community work.

Brighton & Hove Energy Services Co-op is hoping to raise £150,000 from their second share offer to build four new clean energy projects in the local area. For a minimum subscription of £250 shareholders will receive a 5% return on investment. The offer is open until 12 August 2016. Brighton Energy Co-op has launched a community share offer, aiming to raise £1,000,000 for the installation of 1MWp solar PV (minimum) on buildings in the Brighton area. The first installation will be at Park Gate, a residential block on Somerhill Road in Hove.

Powering Up North London is looking to raise raise £30,100 to install 19kW of solar PV at St. Anne’s Church, Highgate.

The Small Wind Co-Op has just extended its share offer to raise £700,000 through a share and bonds offer for farm-scale wind turbines in Wales and Scotland.

SELCE is not qualified or authorised to offer investment advice. We have not vetted or endorsed any of the opportunities shown. Those interested in participating should make their own assessment of each offer, should take note of any risk factors described in the documents and may wish to take independent financial advice.

Meet the Solar Roller

Here's a breath of fresh air; SELCE's solar trailer is now up and running and providing fume-free, silent, power for community events around SE London.

The trailer packed....                                                                   and unpacked......                                      

Unlike the highly polluting diesel-powered generators that blight so many outdoor events with their toxic fumes and relentless noise, our trailer, now officially named the Solar Roller, is available free of charge for any outdoor event (up to the end of September) that is not wholly funded by the council. A branded cover is coming soon.

We can provide the trailer for 10 events and we already have five bookings, so please let us know soon if you want to hire.

Volunteers needed The solar trailer's workload is now being co-ordinated by Anna Plowowski who writes: Huge thanks to Peter Smolen who coined the fantastic name 'Solar Roller' and put together its business plan.  Right now, we need volunteers with all sorts of skills or interests, especially to:

• help push and attach the trailer to the car before or after events

• set up the PV panels, inverters, battery and earth rod at the event

• learn how PV works so you explain it to others

• help provide energy advice at events

• be enthusiastic and persuasive about solar power and community-owned energy

• help drive the car and trailer

Please get in touch with me at solartrailer@selce.org.uk - training will be provided.  Most of it is really not that difficult, even pushing the Solar Roller is good exercise for some of us and all of it is good fun!

Free training to become energy champions...

If you are a Phoenix Community Housing resident, you might be interested in volunteering to become an energy advisor. SELCE recently received funding from Phoenix's Community Chest to provide accredited training and support to volunteers who want to help other Phoenix residents to save money on their energy bills and make their homes more energy efficient.

The Power Up Phoenix project provides 21 hours of AQA-accredited energy advisor training. Volunteers can use this knowledge to shrink their own energy bills as well as helping their friends and neighbours to do the same. Following the training, volunteers will gain further experience by attending energy advice events with some of the SELCE team.

The project will require a commitment of three and a half hours a week for a minimum of three months. If you are interested in taking part, please email alex@selce.org.uk or phone the SELCE office on 0208 269-4882 if you would like more details about the training.

.....and solar panel installers

Lewisham Southwark College is offering the chance to take the first steps towards becoming a solar panel installer for anyone who is receiving work-related benefit.  Training includes introductions to renewable technologies, construction work, roofing principles, electrical work and energy awareness.  For more information contact Paul at south.east@grouphorizon.co.uk or Glyn at glyn.bowers@grouphorizon.co.uk

Help shape Greenwich's future

The Royal Borough of Greenwich is looking for volunteers who live or work in East Greenwich or the Greenwich Peninsula to help shape its 'Sharing Cities' programme. Each person who completes a diary study and interview will receive a £50 local shopping or event voucher.

Project co-ordinator, Heather Yedigaroff writes:  The Council is looking for 10 volunteers who live in East Greenwich or Greenwich Peninsula (the project area) to complete a five-day diary. This means writing diary entries about you and your thoughts and experiences with transport, energy, and local community facilities and sending words and photos to us by email.

The council will then interview you at home, ideally during the week of 22nd August. The project will  help us to understand the motivations and behaviours of people living, working and visiting our project area and this will contriubute towards our 'smart city' project. If you are interested, please don't delay. All diary study volunteers need to attend a briefing session on Tuesday 9th August (6.30 – 7.30pm) or Wednesday 10th August (10.00 – 11.00am) at the Digital Greenwich office at 6, Mitre Passage, London, SE10 0ER. Please email sharingcities@digitalgreenwich.com stating which session you would like to attend.  You can also use this email address to request updates about the project.

Finally...

It's out! After months of painstaking research and hours of careful analysis by Giovanna Speciale and Clare Silcock, SELCE's community consultation on our fuel poverty work, together with how we should expand SE London's renewable energy capacity in the future, is now available. The full report can be found on our website here.

Here is the executive summary to give you an overview of our findings:

"The consultation indicates an endorsement of SELCE’s current strategy to use any financial surplus to tackle fuel poverty in SE London. Respondents are very supportive of projects that promote use of solar PV, and to a lesser extent, solar thermal and heat pumps.

If feasible, these latter renewable technologies are something that could form part of SELCE’s operations in the future. There was less support for the promotion of any renewable technology that relies on biomass. There is a role for SELCE in promoting and enabling greener lifestyles through collective purchasing and, to a lesser extent, courses or face-to-face advice, an electric car club or an energy advice shop.

The report concludes that SELCE should continue to use any financial surplus for projects that address fuel poverty among the most vulnerable. Going forward, SELCE should explore business models that focus on renewable heat technologies as well as solar PV (if possible) or collective purchasing."

We love feedback. If you would like to talk to us about any aspect of the consultation or provide further comments, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Giovanna at giovanna@selce.org.uk

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www.SELCE.org.uk

Copyright © 2015 South East London Community Energy, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is: SELCE, c/o GCDA, Unit 6, Greenwich Centre Business Park, 53 Norman Road, London SE10 9QF Tel: 020 8269-4882 Email: info@selce.org.uk

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