We’re excited to share that six new partners have joined the National Lottery Funded Community Energy People Project! Starting in June, Deben Climate Centre, Derbyshire Dales Community Energy, Grand Union Community Energy, Greenfox Community Energy, Norwich Climate CIC, and River Ivel Community Energy will join our five original partners (Energise South Downs, MaidEnergy, Rossendale Valley Energy, Sustainable Danbury, Zero Carbon Guildford) in creating 33 new paid roles and 100 additional volunteering opportunities within the community energy sector.
In its first year, the project has created 12 paid part time roles which has added 180 staff hours of capacity to our first five partners each week. The project has also created the opportunities for 56 new volunteers to get involved in community energy as directors, energy champions, and student researchers. This extra capacity has already helped our groups to develop their strategies and deliver more projects faster and two of our partners, Energise South Downs and Energise South Downs, have recently opened their first ever share offers for solar projects in their local areas.
Most of the people who have been hired through the project are completely new to community energy and bring with them a diverse set of skills from previous roles. As well as funding for salaries, the project is also providing support for training and skills development. Our new community energy people have undertaken training in a range of areas like organisational management, fundraising, solar site planning, volunteer recruitment, and even drone piloting! Some of the new hires have also used project funding to undertake accredited training like the NEA level 3 in energy awareness and the community energy specialist apprenticeship.
We’re exciting to be brining much needed people to our groups to help them deliver their vital missions.