Open Energy

Going Green for a Living Community Land Trust has been formed to take this on and deliver a £1.9million capital investment programme intended to enhance the natural assets and based on these to develop sustainable development opportunities. Three strands are being invested in:

• Sport and recreation;
• Events and destination development;
• Local food economy.

A 2017 feasibility report identified the real potential for renewable energy to be a fourth strand to this project but because it required further work – on innovation specifically – it was not included in the Big Lottery project but does form the basis for this project. In response to the opportunities identified and the barriers defined – and building on Newtown’s history of sustainable energy innovation – GGfaL is proposing a discreet Open Energy project but is offering to make this a central feature of our wider community asset transfer work so that benefits are optimised. Phase I to build on foundations;

• Enable the community to become confident and competent in taking on a series of renewable energy projects;
• Alongside this draw in a series of innovations required to unlock viable projects and, through a series or iterative feasibility reports, to bring forward a range potential projects. Phase II to build viable projects through:
• Undertaking the technical, planning and legal work required and to secure the necessary finance against the leading projects
• Establishing the community energy cooperative to take this forward through to implementation. Together these form the basis of a much longer term Phase III of self-financing implementation the project.