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CO2Sense welcomes the new Community Energy Strategy

ADBA MEMBER PRESS RELEASE

CO2sense logo - signatureThe government’s newly launched Community Energy Strategy has the potential to revolutionise how we generate energy and also how we use energy on a daily basis, says the low-carbon investor, and ADBA member, CO2Sense.

The government’s strategy will help communities generate their own power through joint renewable energy schemes as well as reducing energy consumption for the most vulnerable households and reduce the costs of power through collective purchasing.

CO2Sense has been at the forefront of community energy since 2008 supporting community owned projects to secure planning consent and be constructed. CO2Sense supported Settle Hydro, the second ever community owned scheme and provided long term support to Roseland Wind, Origin Energy and Valley Wind who all have wind turbines under consideration by the planners. CO2Sense recently re-launched itself as an ethical investor in renewable energy schemes following the closure of their ERDF business support programmes.

Jemma Benson, CO2Sense Fund Manager commented:

This strategy will provide further confidence to communities already actively developing their own energy generation schemes. The new support programmes announced will hopefully be important in removing some of the key barriers to projects. Its pragmatic approach is to be welcomed, however stable policy and long term certainty around incentives will be an important backdrop to the strategy to ensure the opportunity can be realised.

 

The Community Energy Strategy provides a great platform from which to galvanise support for the sector. It suggests models for investment including making partnerships with commercial developers the norm from 2015. Experience shows that the best and strongest community energy schemes are those that have been well financed, to enable the best expertise to be used alongside invaluable volunteers. Therefore the announcement of the Urban Community Energy Fund is an important step in this area, supplementing the existing Rural Fund already in operation.

 

CO2Sense can provide loans and support to any communities looking to develop energy projects. In particular, we can support medium to large scale projects and specialise in anaerobic digestion, biomass CHP, wind and hydro technologies.

CO2Sense is committed to supporting Community Energy projects and aims to provide finance, co-funding alongside government sources and other funders. CO2Sense can provide community renewable energy projects with:

  • Development loans to fund works required to reach planning consent
  • Bridging loans to cover costs between planning permission and construction
  • Short-term loans to cover construction costs

The fund specialises in medium to large scale projects, investing in anaerobic digestion, biomass CHP, wind and hydro technologies.

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