Not for profit and volunteer led, Birch Vale CIC is developing a support mechanism and will introduce a range of measures to help encourage a strong, resilient local energy system. Providing low cost, clean power and heat across the community.
Climate change, rising energy prices, economic austerity, dwindling social cohesion – the world faces a number of challenges that can often seem depressing and intractable. Scratch the surface, however, and there are plenty of seeds of hope. Across the UK and wider world, people are coming together with their neighbours and showing that, with a bit of dedication and community spirit, it’s possible for people to make real progress on a whole range of big issues. The beauty of community energy projects is that they can help deal with so many problems at once, making a difference at the local and global levels simultaneously. This is our aim for Birch Vale, bringing back power to the people... as well as some heat.
Community-scale energy projects enable proactive citizens to make the biggest possible difference. Projects can often be innovative, substantial enough to be noticed and have the potential to be duplicated in other areas of the UK and wider world.
Community energy projects are a great way to both speed up and scale up the rollout of small and medium scale renewable technologies. Technologies can be designed around location, demand and preference. Gains due to reductions in distribution and transmission losses can be passed through to local energy customers and the wider community.
We are working towards a joined up approach to understanding our energy use. As well as power, we are looking at heat and transport so the community can make a real impact.
To insure ourselves against future shortages of fossil fuels and potential problems due to legacy transmission and distribution.
The share of households experiencing fuel poverty was predicted to fall to 12.5% in 2021 yet the economic effects from Covid 19 are yet unknown. New UK objectives have been set to target as many fuel poor households as reasonably practicable to achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of band C’ by 2030.
towards meeting an estimated, collective demand profile of 800 MWh of electricty and just over 1 GWh for heat each year
The cost of installing solar pv systems has reduced significantly. With the use of some storage we are aiming to install a further 400KW of cells in Birch Vale . This will be a mix of ground and roof mounted systems.
New panel designs and innovative mounting systems allow panels to be better integrated within roofs
Larger scale opportunities lie on the western boundary of Birch Vale. We are investigating the feasibility of capturing heat energy derived from sustainable sources. Utilising a heat exchanger and a closed loop organic rankine cycle engine, the system will produce power and heat with high efficiency and minimal operational cost.
As we come out of lockdown, electric vehicles will have an important part to play in reducing emissions from transport and helping the UK reach its net zero targets. Battery electric vehicles are 100% electric vehicles that don’t produce exhaust emissions. We are seeking views on where to place community chargepoints - if you have any suggestions -
Devices that provide heat energy transferred from a source of heat or warmth, to a destination called a heat sink, effectively ‘pumping‘ warmth from one place to another. We have a few options for Birch Vale include medium scale water sourced and ground source. On a smaller scale we are assessing ground source and air source.
Biomass is a renewable energy source, generated from burning wood, plants and other organic matter. We consider biomass a renewable energy source, if the plants or other organic materials being burned are replaced.
An opportunity to coppice, currently unmanaged woodland could provide a percentage of fuel, the remainder being sought from those involved in arboricultural activities across High Peak.
It’s all about taking energy released as heat from a varied range of energy sources, and connecting to energy consumers through a system of highly insulated pipes.
Our phase 1 feasibility study will assess DHN to identify if this new distribution system would be suitable for Birch Vale.
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