We’re fresh off a fantastic few days in Birmingham for Community Energy England’s Annual Summer Conference & we are heading home with no shortage of great ideas, inspiration & new connections.

Across our two-day visit, one theme stood out above all:

Seeing is Believing: Community energy is at its best, when we can see it, understand it & feel a sense of ownership over it

 

Spotlight: Ark Victoria Academy & Solar PV Options for Schools Programme

A massive thank you to Danielle Parker at the Solar PV Options for Schools Project, alongside the brilliant staff & students at Ark Victoria Academy, for showing Action Renewables what is possible when renewable energy is embedded directly into the curriculum.

This visit was a real highlight of our trip.

It was great to see how students interacted with a live dashboard connected to the school’s solar array, tracking:

• How much energy was being generated
• How much was consumed onsite & how much was exported
• The carbon savings achieved

Teachers have access to both the generation & export data, to use this as an interactive tool for the classroom, helping students to connect with their energy use & climate action in a practical way.

This is about so much more than panels installed on a school roof. In fact, this gives students a sense of ownership over their system & helps to create young climate ambassadors in the fight against climate change.

We are already looking forward to visiting another one of their sites & further exploring such a brilliant blueprint for embedding sustainability into the curriculum.

 

Spotlight: Community Energy in Action at Ackers Adventure

We also loved visiting Ackers Adventure, an outdoor activity centre south of Birmingham & one of Community Energy Birmingham’s legacy solar sites.

With 48 kW installed across two arrays dating back to 2012, it was a reminder that community energy is not just about the technologies installed, but about people & responsible stewardship over our local places.

A big thank you to Beate & the team at Community Energy Birmingham for hosting our visit!

 

Bringing the Conversation Home

Back at the conference, we teamed up with Community Energy NI, connecting with teams such as Ethex to discuss their work supporting community investment. As the space for community energy continues to grow here in Northern Ireland, conversations around investment, ownership & flexibility become all the more important.

We also connected with Green Isle of Wight CIC to hear more about their journey into a community led flexibility project & joined roundtable discussions with representatives from Envol Energy & Carbon Co-Op to learn more about the role of community owned batteries in creating value locally.

To learn more about our work supporting community energy & our role in the Energy Learning Network, get in touch with a member of our team at arconsultancy@actionrenewables.co.uk