Things are gathering momentum in Hertfordshire in the wake of funding support from CEP for Grand Union Community Energy (GUCE) and Green Heat Coop seeing increased interest in their heat pump advisory service, as well as the St Albans District Council Step 1 project.
However, all the credit for a fantastically entertaining and inspiring Hertfordshire Community Energy Conference on Friday 10th October must go to Sarah Burgess of GUCE and Fiona Hughes of Green Heat Coop, who provided a comprehensive overview of the potential of community energy to a packed room of Council Officers, Councillors and local people from across Hertfordshire.
Sarah Burgess said:
“Hertfordshire is such a special county, yet despite being one of the largest counties in the country it has a huge untapped amount of potential for community energy projects. Seeing everyone connect and share ideas at the Community Energy Conference was fantastic! Exactly what we hoped would happen and I can’t wait to see what new groups and projects happen as a result.”
Fiona Hughes added:
“It was great to connect with councils and residents from across Hertfordshire, and so inspiring to hear about other community energy projects here in Herts and across the UK. There was great energy in the room and I’m optimistic that we’ll see new groups and projects taking shape over the coming year.”
As well as the keynote speech from Herts CC Executive Member for Sustainability and Portfolio Holder for Place for Dacorum BC, Cllr Adrian England, the audience heard from Cllr Ian Stotesbury who is leading the charge on Watford Borough Council as Portfolio Holder for Transport and Sustainability and as Chair of Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership. They were followed by an overview of community energy’s national impact from John Taylor, Head of Capacity-Building at Community Energy England.
After a break for coffee, the Conference heard from a panel of Hertfordshire’s three community energy groups, when GUCE and Green Heat Coop were joined by Cllr Dr Ben Crystall (HCC), who founded Hertford Energy Now, which owns three FiT school solar installations. These three very different groups provided a great insight into the breadth and range of community energy activities, and the questions from the audience showed an encouraging level of engagement with its potential for Hertfordshire.
Plenty of time was given for networking over lunch, before the Conference reconvened to hear about funding and other support available to groups from Connie Duxbury at Younity, Karen Nankwanga from Greater South East Net Zero Hub and Kirsty Shanahan of Community Energy Pathways.
The hope from the organisers is that Hertfordshire County Council and the other Councils will follow the example of Three Rivers and Watford Borough Councils and incorporate support for community energy into their climate action strategies, but above all that they will facilitate access to potential sites such as schools and community buildings, or collaborate on energy efficiency and retrofit campaigns, in order to amplify the effort of their existing community energy groups, as well as perhaps grow new ones in other parts of what is a very large county.
“We will see what comes out of the day in terms of actions,” said Kirsty, “but judging by the level of interest and the conversations on the day between Officers, Councillors and local people, I have high hopes that Sarah and Fiona’s phenomenal energy and effort in organising this brilliant event will result in a galvanising of community energy activity at all levels, from grassroots up to county, especially in view of Hertfordshire CC’s support for this event.”