Wight Community Energy has a 3.95MW solar farm. Image: Wight Community Energy.
Wight Community Energy has been awarded an additional £58,547 from independent trust Power to Change, to support further community-based renewable energy projects.
It follows Power to Change providing £68,250 of funding in November 2020 to the community benefit society to support the management of its 3.95MW Homestead solar PV farm in Shalfleet, Isle of Wight.
The new funding will allow the group to continue to expand the clean energy capacity on the island as well as to pioneer innovative community-led, renewable energy and low carbon projects throughout 2022.
Colin Palmer, director of Wight Community Energy said the funding allows the group to expand its existing work and “develop exciting new projects.”
“It enables us to maintain our staffing levels and work with others on projects that we could not possibly undertake alone. We look forward to getting these new projects off the ground and making real contributions towards net zero on the Isle of Wight.”
Projects earmarked for support include electric vehicle project Isle EV, a Smart Hot Water Tank project in tourist accommodation and an E-Cargo Bike Delivery Demonstration project.
In May 2021, Community Owned Renewable Energy Partners announced Wight Community Energy was one of six community solar farms that collectively generated £60,000 of surplus profit that will be used to support their local communities. Shalfleet solar farm received £8,000 in surplus.