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Plymouth Energy Community
Plymouth Energy CommunityIn 2016, Plymouth Energy Community turned a derelict, contaminated stretch of land next to a wastewater plant into a solar farm generating enough clean electricity for 1,000 homes...and that was only the beginning.
Project overview
Plymouth Energy Community (PEC) was born out of a Plymouth City Council manifesto pledge back in 2013. With council support to get going and 100 founding members behind it, PEC became an independent charity.
The organisation has a clear mission: to empower the people of Plymouth to create a fair, affordable, zero carbon energy system, with local people at its heart. That means tackling fuel poverty and the climate crisis together, not as separate problems.
About the project
Turning a blast zone into a power station
PEC's sister society, PEC Renewables, was set up in 2014 to put that mission into action, and its flagship project is the Ernesettle Solar Farm. The site sits on derelict land on the banks of the River Tamar, next door to a wastewater treatment works and a munitions store — officially classified as a blast zone, and about as unloved a piece of land as you could find in the city. In March 2016, 16,000 solar panels started generating power on it instead.
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4.1MW of installed solar capacity
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Enough clean electricity for around 1,000 homes every year
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Land rented from Four Greens Community Trust (FGCT), who reinvest the income into local regeneration in Ernesettle
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Surplus profits, expected to reach around £1.5 million, ploughed back into PEC's fuel poverty and carbon reduction work
PEC hasn't stopped there. Chelson Meadow, a former landfill site by the River Plym, is now the site of a proposed 13MW, 33,000-panel solar farm that would power around 3,800 homes and open its doors to visitors as an education resource.
More than megawatts
What makes PEC stand out is what the renewable income is used for. Since 2013, PEC has helped more than 37,000 households with energy advice or energy efficiency measures — a huge number for a city the size of Plymouth. Its energy advisors are trained not just in insulation and tariffs but in mental health awareness, suicide awareness and supporting refugees, because for a lot of people, a conversation about a cold home is really a conversation about something much bigger.
That combination of ambitious renewable generation and deeply local, person-centred support work is why PEC's model keeps winning recognition, most recently a prestigious Ashden Award for its innovative approach to supporting people across Plymouth. It's a brilliant example of what community energy looks like when it's built to last.