Downlands School catches the sun with community solar project
The Share Offer for the HKD Energy Downlands School Solar project is now open – and after only two days we are already 60% of the way towards our target of £100,500. If you’re thinking of investment, please act quickly. Full details are on our website www.hkdenergy.org.uk/
On Saturday 8 November over 80 parents, grandparents and other local residents gathered at Downlands Community School, Hassocks, to hear about plans to give the school one of the largest school solar power arrays in the country – and it will all be paid for by investors from the local community.
We were delighted at the level of interest and positive response of the audience to our plan to install 266 solar panels, providing the school with a cheap source of green electricity, investors with a good rate of return, and saving some 843 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of the project life.
The audience heard from speakers including Norman Baker, MP for Lewes, Howard Johns, a founding director of OVESCo in Lewes, and Rose Hetherton, Head Teacher of Downlands School. HKD Energy Directors explained how the project will work, and how members of the local community will be able to buy shares in the project, and earn a return on their investment as a result of the electricity that the solar panels generate, much of which the school will use with the surplus sold back to the grid.
Norman Baker described the scale of the energy challenges that this country faces, both in terms of climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions, but also in terms of energy security and the need to generate our own electricity rather than depend on imported gas and coal. He outlined the government’s strong support for community energy projects like HKD Energy.
Howard Johns placed the Downlands project in the wider global context of the ‘energy revolution’, which is changing the way the world works, just as the industrial revolution and the internet revolution did. Around the world we are seeing communities take responsibility for meeting their own energy needs, and doing so in creative ways.
The Downlands School Head Teacher, Rose Hetherton, said: ‘I am delighted that Downlands has the opportunity to work in partnership with such an innovative scheme. It fits the ethos of our school perfectly to operate as a true community initiative with direct benefits to both the school community, through reduced energy bills and educational opportunities, but also the local community through the returns on any investment.’
In the photos below, the Launch Event is seen in progress and in the group photo (from left to right): John Willis, Chris Handel, Howard Johns, Norman Baker MP, Rose Hetherton Juliet Merrifield, Bec Hanley, Darren Berman.
