Home Energy Advice – register for an online consultation

You can now sign up here for a free online consultation call with Community Energy Birmingham’s home energy advice service.

CEB is funded as part of the BrumEnergy consortium.

CEB Open Meeting – 2nd November

The 2024 Annual General Meeting of Community Energy Birmingham Limited will now be held via zoom on Tuesday 9th July 2024 at 19:00.

Joining instructions are available on request from laurie@communityenergybirmingham.coop

We look forward to seeing you there.

CEB Open Meeting – 2nd November

Community Energy Birmingham would like to invite you to find out how you can get involved in our community-led energy projects.

Join us at The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham, B5 5TH on 2nd November 7-9pm.

We are excited to reveal our planned projects for the next two years.

We will be launching our strategy, developed with support from Cooperatives West Midlands over the summer.

We are focusing our efforts on two main projects – a home energy advice service, as part of the BrumEnergy consortium, and community-owned solar, in partnership with the Big Solar Coop.

At this informal meeting, we will give a brief summary of our plans, but most importantly we want to have conversations with you about how we build capacity in our organisation to help us achieve our aim of reducing carbon emissions in Birmingham.

You do not have to be a member of CEB to attend – all are welcome, whether you want to get more actively involved, or you’re just interested in finding out more about community energy.

The room capacity is limited to 40 people, so please book your space now to avoid missing out!

Tea and biscuits will be available throughout the meeting.

You can sign up using the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/community-energy-birmingham-open-meeting-tickets-745656046307

Understanding the current energy crisis

You may have seen it in the news, you may have heard it from your energy supplier, or you may already be feeling the pinch. The UK energy crisis is underway this winter, but what does this mean?

Here, we will summarise what is going on in the energy industry and what you can do to keep your energy costs down. We recommend sticking to your current energy provider and starting to plan what you can do to improve your household’s energy efficiency.

What has caused the energy crisis?

Many factors have contributed to the conditions we are experiencing right now, but here we can provide a very brief overview of the main contributors to the energy crisis. The UK’s energy mix is still too reliant on fossil fuels and, as a result, we are heavily impacted by an international increase in the cost of energy resources. Almost half of the UK’s energy is produced by burning gas, and after a particularly cold winter last year, the UK’s gas stores have become depleted. This means the country has had to purchase and import lots of gas from international markets. Usually buying gas internationally does not affect us too much, but as this has been timed with the global recovery from Covid-19, demands for energy resources have pushed prices extremely high. The cost of purchasing gas at this higher rate makes it more expensive for companies to produce energy, and this cost is being pushed on to the consumer. 

What does this mean for consumers?

Some smaller energy providers are unable to afford this increase in cost, which has so far caused 29 energy providers to go bust and displaced almost 4.5 million customers. Because of this, many people are missing out on some of the best rates that were available in the energy market, and are being placed on much more expensive tariffs. Energy prices are now rising significantly, and we will see prices jump this April and again in October. 

The government has an energy price cap in place to protect consumers. Right now, this is doing a good job at shielding customers from sudden, sharp rises in cost in the short-term as it is forcing energy prices below the cost of current energy production. This does not mean there is a cap on the bill you pay, it means there is a cap on the unit price that gas and electricity can be sold at. So, if you use more energy, your bills will still go up. But this will change in April; the price cap will rise by 54%.

This will affect everyone differently, depending on the houses we live in, the people we live with and the way we use our energy, but we can think of this on average. If we imagine the average energy consumption of a family of 4 in a new build home, or perhaps 3 people in a terraced house, we would expect them to use around 12,000 kWh of gas and 3,100 kWh of electricity a year. They would see the price they pay for energy increase from around £1,277 to around £1,971 per year.

Similarly, it’s predicted that energy prices will rise even further in October, so this average yearly bill may exceed £1,971 for this family of 4. It is a bit too early to tell for certain, but it is clearly important to take both short-term and long-term steps to reduce your energy consumption and keep your energy costs down.

What can I do?

Right now, it is really important that if you are on a fixed priced tariff you do not change energy providers. Where it may have previously saved you money to be savvy and switch between providers each year to make the most of cheap deals, that is no longer an option. It is better that you remain with your current energy provider on your current fixed price tariff until you come to the end of your contract, and only then compare the deals on offer.

In addition to this, being energy efficient is crucial during this period. Ultimately, if you use less energy, your energy bill will go down. Energy efficiency is always important, whether you are concerned about your environmental impact, you want to save yourself a few pounds here and there, or you like to make your home that little bit cosier. Now more than ever, it is key to make those small changes to your energy usage habits. You can find many small tips and lifestyle changes online and we will outline some of these in the coming weeks.

As energy prices are going to remain high for a while, it is also important to consider taking the steps to improve your household’s energy efficiency for years to come. Your home’s insulation, the windows and doors you have and the appliances you buy all contribute massively to your energy consumption. To enable homeowners in Birmingham to do this, Community Energy Birmingham is launching a paid Home Energy Advice Service. This will help to reduce your household’s energy bills and carbon footprint by advising personalised energy-saving measures and promoting the use of renewable energy. This service will include a physical assessment of your home to identify potential opportunities for retrofit and personalised energy usage advice and lifestyle improvements.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this brilliant service, you can sign up to our mailing list to find out when the Home Energy Advice Service is officially launched later this year. In addition to this, we can also give you occasional updates about the work being done by Community Energy Birmingham so you can keep track of how Birmingham is working towards becoming carbon neutral by 2041.  

Talking to the public at Ecofest

On Sunday the 19th of September three directors of Community Energy Birmingham talked to members of the general public at Ecofest in the Mac. Ecofest is a collection of community groups who talk to those interested in projects that they are working on. Organisations include Birmingham Friends of the Earth and Eco Birmingham.

We were there to have a chat with potentially interested people about our upcoming potential Home Energy Advice Service. We spoke to individuals about their homes. Many had been thinking about energy efficiency for their properties and were open to discuss further options with us in the future. It was great to be out and about talking to people and other organisations in person again.

If you are interested in hearing about our potential upcoming Home Energy Advice Service then please get in touch at Contact us – Community Energy Birmingham. “ 

Director / Board Member Opportunity

We are currently recruiting a new voluntary director to join our board. Applications from BAME communities, women, persons with disabilities and those based in North Birmingham are particularly encouraged.

We are looking for someone with community engagement and project management skills as well as knowledge of Birmingham and an interest in community energy.

Applications forms can be found here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vkwcwPOpsXDzeXV5bONiUHp8YRv6vlTAdz9Ec0WWeWI/edit?usp=sharing and questions and completed forms should be sent to poppyhill@hotmail.co.uk

The full job description can be found at https://www.environmentjob.co.uk/volunteering/82751-board-member-director

The deadline is 14th September 2021 and interviews will be held the week commencing 20/09/21

We look forwards to your applications!

An exciting new strategy for Community Energy Birmingham

After our AGM last year the elected board of CEB started to meet to determine the future strategy of CEB. Our previous model of putting Solar Panels on community buildings with the main source of income for CEB coming from the Feed In Tariff is no longer viable. This is because the Feed in Tariff no longer exists. The Board knew that CEB needs to go in a new direction. Fortunately, the bigger picture is changing when it comes to action on the Climate Emergency and Community Energy is being increasingly seen as part of the solution to our energy needs. 

We have had business planning meetings where we have discussed what we want our future strategy to be and have finalised our strategy for 2021. There are some sharp steps away from our previous model, but we think that the big picture is changing enough for us to take on new challenges, Our new strategic goals are listed below. If you have any thoughts on the strategy or have any ideas or contacts as to how we can best enact our new strategic goals then please get in touch. 

a.                   Take the lead on approaching other energy cooperatives in the region, propose collaboration with them in creating a PT regional Business Development role, open up a dialogue with WMCA about funding it

b.                   Seeking to define one or more project types that we are likely to be able to deliver, such as renewable heat, EV charging, large-scale solar – think big

c.                   Reconsider our trading area and updating our rules, while maintaining Community Energy Birmingham as our brand

d.                   Launch a paid home energy advice service to householders; allocate a volunteer resource to promoting it; allocate a small budget for any marketing costs; offer paid work and training (PAS 2035) to people who could deliver it

e.                   Hold a formal external board member recruitment exercise, outside our existing networks, to increase the diversity and skills of the board – making a difference, being part of something

f.                    Position ourselves as a critical friend to Birmingham City Council 

g.                   Review progress against these objectives at each board meeting.

Shaz Rahman, Chair of Community Energy Birmingham

Best year for solar output

CEB added another solar array in 2020, helping to further the decarbonise the electricity supply in Birmingham. We put 30 kilowatts of panels onto the Castle Vale Stadium, which mostly exported to the local grid, since the pandemic meant the building had to be closed.

All the 6 buildings together in 2020 generated 74, 654 kilowatt hours of zero carbon electricity. This is 70% more electricity than CEB was generating in 2018, before the Castle Vale arrays.

The cumulative total since the first array in 2012 has been 300,500 kwh or 300 megawatt hours.

Looking at carbon dioxide savings, the current grid average is 231 grams/ kwh, so we can calculate that at least 69 tonnes of carbon dioxide has been saved since 2012

We expect our panels to last at least 20 years, probably more…

NEWS – COVID Update

All the 6 community buildings owned by our charity partners have had to close or restrict entry since March, due to the virus restrictions. Keeping people safe has been the priority.

However, all of the CEB panels on their roofs have been working hard, in fact it has been an unusually sunny summer. The solar arrays have fed the energy needs of these buildings and have kept their electricity bills low, for organisations which are struggling with a reduced trading income.

This shows how renewable energy can increase the resilience of the community sector. Our members at the AGM were very pleased that we are helping in this way. A return to investors will still be paid for 2020, even though at a reduced rate compared to 2019.  

Annual General Meeting 2020

The AGM for members of CEB will be held on 24th June. Due to the virus restrictions, we cannot meet in person and will be doing the business online. Members will receive details about how to take part. Agenda to include elections, financial report, impact of COVID19 and interest to be paid on shares. 

Generating at the Stadium

CEB’s eighth solar installation is now generating on Castle Vale Stadium. 109 panels have been working well from 6th March and are feeding power into the building. Output of up to 29.9 kilowatts peak is being generated.

This followed a lease signing with Simon Wilson the CEO of the Pioneer Group who run these sports facilities for the people of Castle Vale. He has welcomed visitors from the Football Foundation and Football Association, who invested in a refit of the facilities, and they were impressed to see that CEB and Pioneer are tackling the financial and environmental sustainability using solar energy. There are other energy features, such as LED floodlighting of the pitch. More activity, but lower carbon emissions.

Many thanks to our installers EBRL Eco Builds & Renewables Ltd for getting on the roof, between the heavy showers, to finish the job. They did it in time for CEB to register for the Feed in Tariff payments. And thanks to our loyal investors, of course, who made it all possible.

Go Ahead at Stadium

CEB has had applications for all the share capital needed to go ahead with our solar array at Castle Vale Stadium. The Third Share Offer has therefore closed early. Thank you everyone.

Our installers EBRL are t going to be on site and putting up the panels during March, so we can register for 20 years of Feed in Tariff payments and save money for the Stadium by providing zero carbon electricity.

New Solar Project

Update: Fully subscribed and closed 26. Feb 2020

CEB wants to hear from people who may be interested in investing in our upcoming Share Offer in 2020.

We have  been able to register for the Feed in Tariff the Castle Vale Stadium in East Birmingham. It is owned by the Pioneer Group on whose HQ we have already put 163 panels. This will be rather smaller. The Stadium is the home of Romulus FC and other amateur and school sports clubs. One million pounds has recently been invested to make it more available for sporting and social events. The building is all-electric and will benefit from our low price, low carbon solar energy.

Shares will be available soon between 250 and 10,000. Priority to Birmingham residents. We already have pledges for most of the money and want to identify the rest very soon

Please contact enquiry@communityenergybirmingham.coop

Return for investors

People invest in CEB to help local community organisations to benefit from clean solar power, but the directors are happy to pay a rate of return of 4% to the 60 CEB shareholders for 2019.

We are not a bank. However the reliability of the sun, and the assurance of the feed in tariff payments have allowed us to pay out, with high confidence that the income will continue to exceed our very modest costs. This shows the power of community!

More Solar than Ever

2019 is again a record breaking year for CEB, with our 163 new panels at Castle Vale generating from March to the end of June 19,216 Kilowatt hours of clean electricity. Mostly it went to satisfy the demand of this large community building, and not much was exported.

If this is added to the 31,112 kilowatt hours from our other 6 arrays, we have generated over 50,000 kilowatt hours of zero carbon power in the first half of 2019.

Solar Energy Tour and Picnic

People are invited to join the directors and members of CEB to walk around the Ackers Trust site and see the three buildings that benefit from CEB’s solar roofs.

Event on Saturday 29th June. We shall meet at 12.00 at the Ski Centre and walk around outside, then have a shared picnic, so bring some food. Finish around 2.30.

Venue; Ackers Trust, Golden Hillock Road, Sparkbrook B11 2PY.  Go up drive to Ski Centre.

It will be a Thrillseeskers Day, so we shall see people enjoying climbing, canoeing and other outdoor activities that the Trust provides in the heart of the city.

Parking may be a bit of an issue, so give time to find a space and to walk to the Ski Centre. This is our event for Community Energy Fortnight

Please reply if you are coming, so we have an idea of numbers: email enquiry[[at]communityenergybirmingham.coop. If late, do come and find us. If very wet, then assume it is cancelled.

Big Switch On at Pioneer

We have had an official switch on of the 50 kilowatt solar array at Pioneer Group headquarters on 13th May.

For CEB were Kathy Hopkin, John Newson, Simon Baggaley; for Pioneer Group were Sue Spicer and Lee Carter

The array is generating very well in the sunny weather and we have an online link that reports every day on its output.

A presentation about the scheme will be made at our Annual General Meeting on 12th June in Kings Heath. All members and supporters are welcome. The meeting will be held at Whitesmith Croft Common Room, 25 Silver Street, Kings Heath, B14 7QR, and starts at 7pm.

Happy One Hundredth!

100 tonnes of carbon has been displaced from the electricity supply by all the solar roofs owned by Community Energy Birmingham, since they were installed. We keep readings of how much power is generated and can then use the average carbon content of grid electricity from power stations to compare with our own zero carbon electricity. The four buildings where we have solar panels have had their carbon footprint reduced by 100 tonnes. Now that we have a large new  array at The Pioneer Group, Castle Vale, this carbon displacement effect should increase rapidly. 

New solar system running

CEB’s largest solar array is now up and running on the roof of the Pioneer Group building in Castle Vale, as from 18th March. The successful share issue produced the funds to get it up in time to beat the closure of the Feed in Tariff scheme on 31 March 2019. Our installer, EBRL dodged the showers and did the work in good time.

We now have a total of more than 400 solar panels working on community buildings in Birmingham. The new ones will save running costs on a large, modern building which houses Castle Vale Housing Association and other parts of the Pioneer Group – a charity that provides a range of services to local people.

Go Ahead on New Project

We have been successful in raising all the share capital from local people and we have been able to sign a lease with Pioneer Group in Castle Vale for roof space. The picture shows the CEO Simon Wilson in front of their building with Angela Cooper and John Newson, representing CEB. Also there were Shaun and Matt from EBRL who we have contracted to do the installation of 160 solar panels.

The equipment has been ordered and it will now be down to EBRL to arrange the date for the installation and switch on in February or March to register for the ‘feed in tariff’ payments for 20 years.

Many thanks to everyone involved. The shareholders will be receiving their certificates very soon.

Community Energy Birmingham launch new ethical share offer

CEB has some exciting news! We’re looking to grow our existing portfolio of renewable energy generation on community energy buildings in Birmingham, and have just launched a new share offer in November 2018.

CEB already operates six solar PV systems in Birmingham  on community buildings where the organisations receive the benefit of clean and reduced cost electricity.

We have now identified a new community project in time to benefit from the final stages of the government’s Feed in Tariff payment, before its closure on 31 March 2019. . This will be our largest solar roof to date, with a peak capacity of 50 kW. The total investment opportunity is around £44,000.We have already raised several thousand pounds.

CEB’s  investors are drawn from local people of Birmingham; as an investor you would receive 4% interest on your  shares, knowing your money is being invested ethically. The minimum investment is £250 and an installment plan is available. Full details are available in our Share Offer document which we invite you to read..

If you would like us to talk you through the process please email to enquiry@communityenergybirmingham.coop or fill out and return the Application Form.

We would really appreciate it if you could share our news with friends and colleagues, so we can find as many investors as possible.

Cleaner panels

Solar panels do not usually require cleaning, but we noticed that those we have on the Moseley Exchange, beside a busy crossroads, were showing a decline in output and were visibly were getting grubby. Our contractor, Colin Strong, climbed up on the roof on 11th August, and gave them a good wash down.

It has been an exceptionally sunny summer, so they should now perform very well. Moseley Forum are working on plans to reduce the delay and idling of vehicles in the centre of Moseley, which would make the air cleaner in future for our panels (and everyone’s lungs).

Best Ever Quarter

The blue skies of March to June 2018 have broken CEB’s record for generating clean solar electricity, producing a total of 20,000 kilowatt hours. This has fed power into the buildings owned by Ackers Adventure and Moseley Exchange reducing their running costs even more, with any surplus exported to the local grid.

Nationally, we read that solar broke the record for weekly output between 21 and 28 June and it even became the leading source of electricity for Britain on the afternoon of 30 June.

Diary Date: AGM on 9 May

Community Energy Birmingham’s Annual General Meeting for 2018 will take place at Whitesmith Croft Common Room,
25 Silver Street, Kings Heath, B14 7QR on Wednesday 9th May starting at 7pm.

The agenda will cover the business of formally reporting on our activities in 2017 and presenting the accounts to the membership for their scrutiny. Two of our directors, Angela Cooper and John Newson, will be standing for re-election. Please contact us if you have abilities that could help the directors and/or may be able to stand as a director.

The Treasurer will be recommending a first payment of interest to our loyal shareholders, which you may like to vote on!

We shall also have a presentation about CEB’s search for new projects, as costs of solar energy fall, and we will leave plenty of time after the formal part of the meeting for nibbles and networking.

We welcome both members and anyone interested in learning about what we do to attend. Please let us know you are coming on enquiry@communityenergybirmingham.coop so we can plan catering.

Could your community building be suitable for our next phase of large solar power installations?

Community Energy Birmingham is a renewable energy cooperative that funds, installs and operates renewable energy in community buildings in Birmingham.  We are a community benefit society with an open membership and we are run in accordance with cooperative values and principles.  We are run by a voluntary board that is elected by the membership.

We are looking for the right type of partner organisations with suitable buildings in Birmingham for our next phase of large solar power installations.

If your building is suitable then we are interested in working with you to install solar power on your building.  There would be no upfront capital cost for you.  You would buy some, or most, of your electricity from us, at a lower price than you currently pay your electricity supplier.

If you think you are the right type of partner for us then please click here to answer a few questions.  Your building should be located in Birmingham.  For general enquiries about this project please email baggaleysimon@yahoo.co.uk

Solar Surge in 2017

With a full year of generation at Ackers Ski Centre, we can see how it is swelling our clean energy output. The chart shows the cumulative contributions of the 6 solar buildings who host our panels. They follow the predictions in our Business Plan.

During 2017, they produced a total of 149 Mwh of clean energy for the buildings and their neighbourhood. The carbon saved by displacing grid electricity has been calculated as 41 tonnes. The cumulative totals since installation are 308 Mwh of our electricity, saving 85 tonnes CO2.

There are also the benefits to Ackers and Moseley CDT from the low fixed energy bill from the sun.

Green Connection

Season’s greetings and congratulations to our partner, Moseley Community Development Trust, for arranging for a new electric connection to be installed  on Moseley Village Green. This is now powering the monthly Farmers’ Market.  It has made redundant several petrol generators, which were noisy and polluting. Instead, the local supply from Moseley village substation can be used, which is fed in part from solar roofs in the area, such as the Exchange and St Mary’s church, reducing the carbon footprint of the market and other events. 

Life on the Sun

At the roasting start of July two CEB directors, John Newson and Claire Spencer, led a walk to visit some community buildings that have solar panels. The walk took place during Community Energy Fortnight and the Moseley Festival. We were greeted at the Old Post Office building by Fiona Adams of Moseley Exchange, who explained how they benefit by the cheap electricity from the two solar arrays there, which belong to CEB. The next stop was St Mary’s parish church, where John Dowell who is a former churchwarden, showed us the display inside the church of all the power produced over 6 years, since the panels were installed by British Gas. That was part of their Green Streets programme, which had been won by Sustainable Moseley and it also paid for panels at the Hamza Mosque, where we arrived to be shown around by Saifer Rehman. He had a most interesting story to tell about solar generation, with LED lights to cut consumption, and a range of water saving methods, as well as cycle stands put by the main entrance. We agreed that there is one sun for everyone and all can benefit from using renewable energy! 

Moseley Solar Walk

Is Moseley becoming a solar village?

On Saturday 8th July, CEB Director John Newson will be leading a guided walk visiting solar installations on community buildings around Moseley, on behalf of Community Energy Birmingham and Balsall Heath is Our Planet. These include the arrays installed by CEB and those by our predecessor organisation, SusMo.

This is a chance to learn more about solar energy in general, and the role of community energy cooperatives such as CEB in providing it.

The walk starts at the Moseley Exchange / Post Office at 11 am. Please email John in advance to let him know you are coming: bhiop@jericho.org.uk

Annual General Meeting 2017

On 14 June 2017, the directors met with members for CEB’s Annual General Meeting. This included the standard formal activities required by law, including presenting the annual report and accounts for 2016 for the members’ approval and elections of directors. We re-elected Beck Collins and Phil Beardmore for another 3-year term each, and said a warm thank-you to Shaz Rhamann for his contributions as he stood down from the board.

It was also a useful opportunity for members to gain an insight into how the cooperative is being run. This is important from a governance perspective – generating a productive dialogue with members about the background and context for our decisions – but also for the general health of the organisation’s culture. We are all involved, after all, because we believe in the value of renewable energies and in supporting community activities.

We also had the opportunity to hear about the activities of our sister community energy coop, Power for Good, and about Birmingham Friends of the Earth‘s share offer to develop the Warehouse in Digbeth. We share interests and members with both organisations and it was good to be updated with their news.

We finished the evening with ‘nibbles and networking’. Our members are a friendly and interesting group of people to spend time with, and we’d like to encourage anybody who wasn’t able to attend this year to come along next year and experience this for yourself.

Diary Date: AGM on 14 June

Community Energy Birmingham’s Annual General Meeting for 2017 will take place at Whitesmith Croft Common Room,
25 Silver Street, Kings Heath, B14 7QR on Wednesday 14th June 2017 at 7pm.

The agenda will cover the usual business of formally reporting on our activities in 2016 and presenting the accounts to the membership for their scrutiny. Two of our directors, Beck Collins and Phil Beardmore, will be standing for re-election, and we will be saying thank you and farewell to a third, Shaz Rahman, who will be standing down to focus on other projects.

We are hoping to have a guest speaker from Birmingham Friends of the Earth, and we will leave plenty of time after the formal part of the meeting for nibbles and networking.

We welcome both members and anyone interested in learning about what we do to attend. Please let us know you are coming on enquiry@communityenergybirmingham.coop so we can plan catering.

Guest blog; Birmingham Friends of the Earth Community Share Offer. 

Our Friends Birmingham Friends of the Earth currently have a Community Share Offer to renovate their building, The Warehouse.

BFOE have had the building for 40 years; it is our hub of which we campaign on environmental issues. As well as this The Warehouse also holds a vegetarian Restaurant, a bike shop and a vegan food shop.The Warehouse is an old Victorian building that needs further renovation. BFOE have worked hard in bringing the building up to a B on an EPC, but further work is needed. The building is also not disabled access friendly, we want to complete this much needed work to the Warehouse.

Once the work is completed, it would allow us to use the Warehouse more efficiently, allowing us to increase our revenues through things like increased office rent. This means that the building would sustainably fund itself, freeing BFOE to work more on campaigning to make Birmingham a more sustainable city.

To raise the capital to complete this work. BFOE have launched a Community Share Offer. Like Community Energy Birmingham, BFOE are a Co-operative, in the form of a society for community benefit.

We want to raise £240,000 of which £100,000 would be match invested from Co-ops UK. We are offering a rate of return, which is higher than most ISA’s. In year 2 we aim to pay 1% interest, year 3, 2%  interest and year 4, 3%interest. The rate of return would be reviewed in year 5.

Please check out our crowdfunder page and if you are impressed by our plans and can afford to, invest in the BFOE Community Share Offer.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/unlocking-the-warehouse/

Shaz Rahman, Campaigns Co-Ordinator for Birmingham Friends of the Earth (and Director of Community Energy Birmingham)”

As the spring days grow in length, we are delighted to report a milestone in the life of CEB.

The six solar roofs owned by Community Energy Birmingham have produced more than 100,000 kilowatt hours of output (or 100 megawatt hours) by the end of March 2017. This has mostly been used by the charities that occupy the buildings, with the rest exported to local consumers. Our clean solar power has displaced grid electricity that would have produced over 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

New Year Quiz!

Why have the two solar arrays at Moseley Exchange performed differently in 2016? The latest readings show that the main roof performed better during summer but the rear roof better in the winter months – read on to find out why…

The output of the panels will be the outcome of a number of factors; the inclination and orientation of the panels, the season and the time of day.

Inclination

Summer. The sun is higher in the sky in summer than in the winter months. This means that the flat array presents an inclination to the sun which is greater i.e. nearer to 90o than the inclined panels. Flat panels should produce more in summer than inclined ones.

Winter. The sun is lower in the sky, so at a low angle to the flat array, but the inclined array will present a steeper face to the sun’s rays, and will therefore be the more effective at generating.

Orientation

The flat array always faces the sun, if sun is above the horizon, and it will produce equally wherever the sun is coming from.. The inclined panels however face one fixed direction, in this case southwest. If the sun is early or late and not from this direction, then the output of the panels is reduced.

This effect of orientation compounds the above effect of inclination to make the flat array perform the better in summer, but the inclined array the better in winter. Readings on the two roofs at the Moseley Exchange in 2016 have confirmed that this is true.

The orientation also affects when maximum output occurs. For the flat array this is when the sun is south i.e. at noon, but for the inclined array since it faces the southwest, which is direction of sun in afternoon/early evening, it has a later time of maximum output. The latest output i.e sundown will be later for the inclined panels which face the setting sun. The earliest output in the morning will be from the flat array.

The conclusion is that the different outputs of the flat and inclined arrays will complement each other through the seasons and the hours. Total output should be greater than if all were flat, or all were inclined.

Sun shines on Ski Centre

It has been a great first year for our Solar array at Ackers Ski Centre. The panels which we own on the roof have generated 16,400 kilowatt hours of electricity in 2016. The centre uses a lot of electricity for heating and for running its ski lift, so a high proportion will have been used onsite. Any surplus has gone to neighbouring buildings. Eight tonnes of carbon has been displaced by not using grid electricity, also the Ackers pays us a low fixed price for its power, when otherwise prices are rising. They should be able to manage their finances and keep on providing outdoor opportunities for young people in Birmingham. 

Community Energy Fortnight: CEB Tour and Picnic

On 18th September, CEB held a tour of Ackers Adventure and picnic as part of the national Community Energy Fortnight. We had 12 people attend, including members, directors and friends and friends and family of attendees who did not necessarily have a strong interest in community owned renewable energy, but were open to a fun day out.

We met with the site manager of the Ackers, and he led us around the site to the different buildings, explaining what the Ackers did along the way.  We also went up the 20metre high climbing tower that the Ackers has, to get an excellent view of all our installations, and to tell the story of the wind turbine that never was. We finished up with a bring and share picnic in the sunshine.

The event was really convivial and relaxed.  Everyone enjoyed hearing about what the Ackers does (given that it’s rather a hidden ‘green gem’ in an extremely industrialised part of the city), and were pleased to hear that our work with them has helped them to be more resilient as an organisation, in terms of reducing their fuel bills. The picnic was also lovely; it built a sort of community spirit in the shadow of our community owned kit!

Annual General Meeting

Community Energy Birmingham’s AGM was held on 13 July 2016. It was with great pleasure that the board could report to members on the events of 2015, including the successful share offer and the installation of two arrays of solar PV at the Moseley Exchange and one at Ackers Adventure.

Both the policy and business environment for community energy has changed considerably since the instigation of these projects, and members were invited to get involved as the board engages in a new phase of planning, to devise business models that work in these changing conditions.

Co-Wheels’ Nissan Leaf

We also welcomed Sandra Green from the car-sharing company Co-Wheels to give a presentation, to stimulate ideas of how we might develop new partnership models, such as those involving electric vehicles. It was also of general interest to our members to hear how other people are going about the greening of our city.

Thank you to all of our Shareholders

Thank you to the 43 shareholders who have invested in our 2015 share offer. Due to your investment we have successfully installed solar arrays at Moseley Exchange and further installations at the Ackers Adventure. The Share offer was a great success and we are very proud of what we have achieved. The work of everyone involved has meant that clean, green, electricity will be supplying a few community buildings of Birmingham as well as supplying local neighbourhoods. The effect of our installations is that 30 tonnes of Carbon will be displaced from the electricity grid.

Largest array yet at the Ackers Ski Centre Site

The new extension to the Ski Centre at Ackers Adventure, Sparkbrook now has a 19 kilowatt solar roof – our largest yet. Installed on 26 February 2016 they were preregistered at the FIT rate of 12 months before, so avoiding the cut to FIT rates introduced in January. We now have almost 50 kw of pv feeding into the Ackers Adventure buildings in total, and saving 23 tonnes off their annual carbon footprint. The site is well used by people of all ages, but especially youngsters who would not otherwise be able to afford to enjoy the range of outdoor activities available. We are saving money for the Ackers on all their building which have become solar powered since 2012. 

Moseley gets a 2nd PV array

CEB has installed another 10 kilowatts of solar panels on the main roof of the Moseley Exchange building, joining the 8.5 kw on the sloping roof to the rear. We were able to do it before Christmas, so beating the government’s big cut to the rate of feed in tariff on new projects from January 2016, which allows us to pay back shareholders. The new panels cannot be seen, since they lie flat behind the parapet of this historic old Post Office building in the centre of Moseley. Since the building is in use almost every day, the solar energy will be consumed within the building, which is used by many Moseley community groups.

Date set for Moseley Exchange Installation

The long awaited solar array on Moseley Exchange has a date for installation of 6th December 2015. Nearly 10Kw will join the 8.5 Kw already installed in May. This is a Sunday, because a crane will be used to lift the panels and ballast onto the roof, so we chose a time when the building is not in use. Thanks to New World Home Energy for working efficiently with us on this, and all our solar projects. 

Solar Roof at Ackers Completed

Solar pv has been installed on the roof of Ackers Adventure, in November 2015, alongside the array that has bene working since 2012. The 2015 array adds 10 kilowatts, making almost 20 Kw on this roof, which should satisfy the needs of the building on many days.  We have been able to register it for the feed in tariff payments for 20 years, before the dramatic downward move which is expected from the government’s review for 2016. 

Share Offer Closed

We are pleased to announce that the Share Offer 2015 has closed with more than 30 investors being allocated their shares by November. This gives us enough to proceed with the solar pv roofs on community buildings at both Ackers Adventure and Moseley Exchange. An application to HMRC has been made so that investors can get tax relief from the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, just before the government made ineligible projects that receive feed in tariff payments. 

Share Offer Extended until 2nd of October

Firstly, thank you to all of those who have already placed their faith in Community Energy Birmingham and invested over £50,000 so far. The board have decided to use this money to place orders for two of the three projects listed in the Share Offer prospectus. Your money will help community energy within Birmingham.

For us to be able to complete the final project the Board has decided to extend the Share Offer until the 2nd of October to raise the remaining £15,000. There is still time to invest if you would like to help Community Energy Birmingham and get a rate of return of 4% plus 30% tax relief on your investment if you are a UK income tax payer.

Share Offer Launch Nearing End

Thank you to all of you who have shown an interest in Community Energy Birmingham’s work for renewable energy!  We are really grateful to those of you who have followed up that interest by applying for shares!  So far we have raised £42,500

Our target is £65,000, so we’re halfway there with only a week to go before our deadline.  If you want to invest, now is the time!  Fill out the application form, tell your friends, and help support the creation of community owned renewable energy in Birmingham!

COMMUNITY ENERGY BIRMINGHAM’S SHARE OFFER CLOSES ON 2nd  SEPTEMBER – APPLY NOW FOR SHARES!

Solar Output Triples

In exciting news, solar panels owned by Community Energy Birmingham have enabled us to produce three times as much clean energy this summer 2015 as we did last year. From 40 panels we have moved to 110 panels generating, and some of the most recent can make 280 watts each, so from 8,500 kilowatt hours in 2014 we can expect 25,000 kilowatt hours in 2015 and thereafter. We plan for three more solar roofs on community buildings by the end of 2015, and these will bring the annual output to 58,000 kilowatt hours. As well as benefitting our community buildings by saving on imported electricity, this will earn £10,000 a year for CEB for 20 years.  The clean electricity will displace the need for grid electricity and so reduce the buildings’ footprint by 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. We are still looking for shareholders to invest  and help to provide the capital for these further three roofs. 

On Thursday 2nd July Community Energy Birmingham (CEB)’s Share Offer launched with a bang!  It was standing room only as over 30 people crammed into the Moseley Exchange to hear how they could invest in clean, renewable energy for some of Birmingham’s community organisations.

CEB is currently working with Moseley Community Development Trust and Ackers Adventure to install solar PV onto their buildings.  CEB has already installed 28.5kW worth of PV onto both the Moseley Exchange and two buildings at Ackers Adventure, paid for by a grant and through short term loans.

The current share offer hopes to raise a further £65,000 to install a further 37kW of PV between the two sites.  This technology is helping these two organisations, which provide many benefits to their local communities, to insulate themselves against future energy price rises, and help them to continue their good work in difficult economic times.  It also helps to reduce carbon emissions and diversify the energy system, bringing power generation into the hands of the community.

The share offer launch saw many people who were enthusiastic to help these local organisations by making an ethical investment in community owned, renewable energy.  Members of CEB gave a short presentation, and answered further questions over a buffet provided by The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham.

If you’d like to hear more about CEB’s work, or invest in our projects, check out our share offer document on the website; or email us at enquiry@communityenergybirmingham.coop

Share Offer Launch

by Shaz Rahman 

 Our exciting Share Offer launch event is 7:30pm at Moseley Exchange on Thursday 2nd July for potential investors to meet the directors, hear about our plans and how you can invest, with a chance to have your questions answered. Please contact us if you wish to attend 

New Solar Panels at Moseley Exchange

by Shaz Rahman 

 Moseley Exchange which occupies a former post office building in South Birmingham is now benefitting by solar electricity installed at the end of May when CEB installed 30 solar panels on the roof. The building is owned by Moseley Community Development Trust and it is used by many local groups for events and meetings. The panels are above the co-working space for local microbusinesses. There is more roof space available, which CEB has rented and plans to use in future. The Exchange is to host the Share Offer launch of Community Energy Birmingham on 2nd July with the aim of raising the capital to pay off loans and install another 3 solar roofs on community buildings. 

Ackers Adventure: grid electricity update

Since Community Energy Birmingham installed solar PV in 2012, Ackers Adventure has halved its use of grid electricity at its ABC administration block,. The reduction is similar to the output from the solar array, meaning that virtually 100% of the electricity generated from the solar panels has been used in the office building,. There is still vacant space on the roof, and it was built with a south-facing slope that offers the ideal opportunity to add more panels, which we intend to do later in 2015. 

Ackers Adventure welcomes a second PV array

Ackers Adventure has had a second 10 kilowatt solar PV array installed, this time on their residential centre.

This is a particularly exciting installation as it is so suited to the building’s use. Parties stay there for the adventurous activities, and they use a lot of hot water for showers. So we arranged for two immerSUN controllers to feed excess solar electricity into the immersion tanks. This should make a huge difference to the amount of electricity bought in to the building, and a high proportion of the solar power generated will be used in the building. We hope that this sort of intelligent design can find its way into more installations like this, and look forward to seeing how much carbon and money is saved by Ackers, who enable thousands of young people from urban areas to enjoy outdoor activities.

The 40 panels were put up by New World Home Energy and CEB used loans from local supporters to pay for the new solar roof.

Community Energy Birmingham has recently raised £35,000 from short-term loans to install 18kW of solar PV panels at the Moseley Exchange in the centre of Moseley Village. We are currently finalising the lease that will allow us to rent the roof space at the Exchange from Moseley Community Development Trust.

A slight delay has been caused to the installation on the Exchange main roof because the roller shutter over the entrance to the rear yard has become jammed and needs either to be repaired or removed.   Once this has been sorted, New World Home Energy, the company we are working with,  can gain access to the yard for their crane, in order to begin installing the panels on the main roof. In the  meantime they will install 30 panels on the back extension roof which does not need a crane to get the panels onto the roof.  There will be 40 panels on the main roof  in due course, making 70 panels altogether, and together they will generate enough power to supply the Exchange building with plentiful cheap, clean, low-cost electricity for the next twenty years. 

Planned Solar PV Installation at the Moseley Exchange, 149 – 153 Alcester Road, B13 8JP

CEB is ready to install 70 solar PV panels on the roof of the Moseley Exchange, which is well-known to many people as the home of Moseley Community Development Trust. The CDT provides valuable support for many local community activities and groups, as well as leading the regeneration of the neighbourhood in Moseley. The building hosts a co-working space and 68 groups use the  meeting rooms for hire throughout the week.  The panels will supply electricity to the building during all daylight hours, with any surplus going to the neighbouring area.

We are looking for short-term loans to pay for the installation and already have some pledges. If you would like to offer a short-term loan in January, we will be able to repay you with interest (at a rate of around 4% gross) when we receive the money from the community share offer which we are launching in the summer (planned launch date early May 2015).

If you want to make a longer-term investment, you will be able to convert your loan into shares in Community Energy Birmingham when the share offer is launched. This will have the advantage of allowing you to claim substantial tax relief through the Government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)*.

If you would like to be part of this exciting project, or discuss this further , please email John Newson at communityenergybirmingham[at]gmail.com 

Pioneers into Practice: supporting Community Energy Birmingham

by John Newson

The placement was from Balsall Heath Is Our Planet, where I normally work as development officer to Community Energy Birmingham – a renewable energy co-op, also in Birmingham.

The funding of my time was from the EU Climate KIC (knowledge innovation community). Community Energy Birmingham did not receive any money directly. I worked between 1st May and 26th July and did the equivalent of 20 consultancy days (keeping a timesheet).

Pioneers into Practice ran two workshops that I attended with other low carbon pioneers from the West Midlands, sharing the challenges and insights from our placements at a range of carbon-cutting organisations.

My main focus was on development work for a pair of proposed wind turbines at The Ackers – discussions and research to prepare for the planning application. I also worked on the proposed wind turbines at Frankley and the solar roof at Moseley CDT, with some attention to bio-energy possibilities at community scale. I also contributed to discussion of the Business Plan, re these projects. This was a considerable extra input for a small organisation with no paid staff.

CoRE50 was a relevant, interesting and mostly enjoyable placement. It has extended my understanding of the roles of various actors in the public, private and community sectors which are required to achieve deployment of renewable energy in an urban area, the barriers and the help available to overcome them. I will continue to support CORE50 as best as I can and look for opportunities in Birmingham to advance community energy projects..

The second part of the programme is a placement in Wroclaw, Poland. This will run 23rd September to 25th October. The project there will be around using green space and trees to moderate effects of climate change in cities. This is relevant to the work of Balsall Heath Is Our Planet and to Birmingham more widely.

CoRE50 responds to BIS ‘Red Tape Challenge’

Like many other UK co-operators, the directors of CoRE50 were troubled to hear that the government were considering reducing the existing protection of the name ‘co-operative’, and felt strongly that we ought to respond: Here.

Sustainable energy in Freiburg: power to the people!

I was delighted earlier this year when my supervisors told me an opportunity had come up for me to go on a trip to Freiburg in Germany; an exemplar city for environmental sustainability. They also told me I had to finish a thesis chapter before I went, (which was the bad news) but that’s another story. “I warn you!” said one of them, “you’ll get ‘city envy’! You won’t want to come back!”

We saw lots of amazing things in the city covering all sorts of sustainability areas, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that my favourites were the bigger renewable energy installations out in the countryside. We visited two farms who had suffered from major international problems in the agricultural industry in recent times; problems that many of our own farmers have probably experienced. One farm had raised pigs and cows in the past; being so high up in the mountains it’s not possible to grow crops for human consumption. After the BSE scandal, the farm nearly went bust. The other was a dairy farm, which had been struggling to survive for years with the price of milk per litre being at least 10c per litre too low to make a living. Both of these farms were run by families who had been farming for generations, who had always made their living from the land. It was more than just a business to them, but a way of life and their inheritance to their children.

These farms have found a way to use renewable energy technologies to continue to get a living from the land. The former beef farm now produces biogas in an anaerobic digester, which digests the milk corn they can grow. They have long term contracts to keep the local school and a number of homes to a certain temperature, and they sell their energy more cheaply than mainstream energy providers. The dairy farm uses a heat exchanger to extract the heat from fresh cows’ milk, which is used to heat their home. They have a 30kW solar PV array on their farmhouse, and they sell wood for use as heating, and their own home-made schnapps (delicious!).

We also visited some wind turbines up on the top of the mountains overlooking the city and these farms. One of these was a huge 2MW turbine that couldn’t be seen on a cloudy day; it was so high up it got lost in the clouds. It took a while for me to realise that the aeroplanes I thought I could just about hear flying overhead (with surprising regularity) were actually the turbine’s blades going around. What inspired me most about these turbines was that they were actually owned by local people. Just under 200 people from the local area and the city of Freiburg itself had raised a third of the money for these turbines, with the rest coming from banks.
Freiburg was full of stories like this of people participating in their sustainable future. ‘The city wanted to do this, but the people said no’ was a common refrain from our tour guide! People didn’t want old buildings in one neighbourhood to be taken down, and helped to show that it was cheaper to renovate them instead. People had campaigned against nuclear energy in the 1970s when the whole region was earmarked as a nuclear ‘hub’, and helped set Freiburg on the sustainable energy path it’s on now. People owned a stake in the energy they used. It was an inspiring place!

Despite my supervisor’s warning, however, I didn’t have city envy, and I did want to come back. I love Birmingham and believe that it could one day be as sustainable as Freiburg. In one way, CORE 50 is contributing to this change. CORE 50 is planning a number of renewable energy projects across the city that ordinary people can buy into, and co-own with other members of the public. Through renewable energy co-ops like CORE 50, we can all have a stake in our own energy, instead of being at the whims of the Big Six. We can be in charge of our own power!

Today, representatives from CoRE50 and E.ON joined with students from three local schools to celebrate the introduction of renewable energy to Ackers Adventure. Together, they enjoyed E.ON’s interactive ‘Town of Total Darkness’ performance and investigated the photovoltaic system, which will save Ackers Adventure £400 per a year on their energy bills.

Kelvin Staple, Manager of Ackers Adventure, was delighted that the day had helped to strengthen the relationship between them and the wider community:

“It was a brilliant and fun morning. There was so much enthusiasm from everyone and the kids (including the big ones) loved it. I hear they were still talking about it when they got back to school.

It also fitted perfectly as one class were working on a project about light and energy and we got the teacher to point out the electricity substation on their way back.“

CoRE50 were really pleased: the community coming together to own, benefit from and understand renewable energy is exactly what we want from our projects, and we hope that the relationship between the local schools and Ackers Adventure continues for many years to come. Many thanks to E.ON for helping us to make it happen.

After nine months of planning and a successful project under our belts, we were really pleased to be highly commended in the Social Enterprise West Midlands awards, in the Planet category. This was our first award, so we were very pleased – and hope to deserve one even more next year! 

by Claire Spencer

We are delighted to announce the completion of our first renewables project as CoRE50: the installation of 10kW of photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Ackers Adventure activity centre. For those of you who don’t know it, Ackers is a place where local people can take part in outdoor pursuits and adventures in the heart of Birmingham. Their goal is to become carbon neutral, and this is one step along the path to getting there.

This work was made possible thanks to a £20,000 investment from E.ON’s Sustainable Energy Fund. This investment will not only give the Ackers, cheap, renewable electricity (saving them around £400 per year on their energy bill), but provides CoRE50 with an income for future projects.

The solar PV panels will be officially ‘unveiled’ on November 23rd, with Yardley MP John Hemming and local schoolchildren in attendance. After the official unveiling, there will be an interactive performance of E.ON’s ‘Town of Total Darkness’, an energy themed play aimed at primary school children, inspired by Sherlock Holmes. In addition, energy advisors will be on hand to offer advice to local families about how they can save money on their bills and answer any energy related questions.