We have great news to share with our supporters.
You may know that about a week before Christmas, the government's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced an initiative to fund exploratory schemes for community energy generating or energy saving. The funds were available to community groups via a competitive bidding process and the deadline for the submission of bids was very tight. The name chosen for the initiative was 'Local Energy Assessment Fund' - inevitably this has become known as LEAF!
Transition Pershore decided to submit a bid to assess the possible development of a hydro scheme at Nafford weir, about 4 miles down river from Pershore. I am delighted to report that we have obtained a sum of £34,000, the funding for which we applied and are now in the process of beginning the assessment process. The funds allow us to use two expert groups who are used to (a) developing small-scale energy projects such as ours and (b) working with community groups.
The experts are All Rivers Hydo, http://allrivershydro.co.uk who will conduct the assessment and recommend installers etc, and Sharenergy http://www.sharenergy.coop who will help us set up a community-based company 'Avon Eco Power' to own and manage the project from it's completion. Needless to say, the deadline for spending the money is very tight - we have to complete our assessment before 12th April and have invoices in by the end of March!
We feel quite confident that the scheme is a viable one and are excited at the prospect of offering this project to members of the local community. When the scheme is up-and-running, we feel that there will be other similar opportunities in the locality that we can pursue.
We will endeavour to keep you informed of progress.
Trevor Pryce-Jones
Chairman
Transition Pershore