1 – Opening
a. Apologies
Present: Directors Geoff Allan, Anne Silber, Carolyn Jones, Nick Walters, Suzanne Audrey; David
Saunders (speaker); plus four members of the public.
Apologies: Simon Hobeck, Linn Waite, Claire Radford, Michelle Clare-Hudson
NB. Due to the circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic we were not able to hold our normal TRESA
Committee meeting on this occasion and this is to be re-scheduled.
b. Previous minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
2. Speaker representing Extinction Rebellion
Presentation by guest speaker David Saunders on community energy schemes.
Some of the points David made were as follows.
- The growth of solar energy generation is exponential. At the current rate, it will meet total world
- electricity demand by 2032.
- The cost of solar generation is set to become cheaper than any other source.
- The first solar scheme in Bristol was set up under Bristol Power Co-op and used the government’s
- then Feed-in Tariff scheme to cover the cost of fitting free panels. The first panels were fitted to
- Hamilton House in Stokes Croft, Bristol.
- This led to a pilot scheme in Lockleaze, where 23 rooves were fitted with solar panels.
- The cost of panels and installation fell steadily, in line with the fall in the Feed-in Tariff.
In 2018, the Locklieaze Community Scheme started, which had three elements: an energy plan, a
housing plan and a climate change plan. The energy plan was to provide cheap energy for low-
income households by using solar panels and smart meters. Typically, the household would use 20 –
25% of the energy generated, with the rest sold to the national grid and generating income.
Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust was set up and worked in partnership with Low Carbon Gordano and
Bristol Energy. Work continues to enable the community energy aspect of the scheme, ‘Lockleaze
Loves Solar’ to be offered to residents.
Meanwhile, Bristol City Council’s One City plan is already calling for much more installation of solar
energy generation. The Council has secured a £3 million National Lottery grant towards its Climate
Action Fund, which combined with its One City aims should help community energy schemes in
Bristol to get off the ground.
On a wider scale, with the end of the Feed-in Tariff, the finance market generally is waking up to the
potential of cheap solar on rooftops to offer good financial returns, again increasing the potential for
community energy schemes globally to get up and running.
And as regards the funding aspect, there is a ‘win -win ‘ opportunity here for pension funds and
banks to divest their holdings of the stocks of fossil fuel companies, given the short and longer-term
decline in fossil fuel profits, and to re-invest those funds in solar energy generation schemes which
will offer sound long term returns.
David provided this follow up to his presentation with recommendations for books and useful links:
If the Lockleaze trial works as we expect it to, and other groups come together around the idea, we
could get a groundswell that grows and grows until we are making most of our energy ourselves, and
have thriving economies based on running our own utilities and making energy far more affordable
for all.
Books:
- What We Need to Do Now: For A Zero Carbon Future, by Chris Goodall
- The Case for The Green New Deal, by Ann Pettifor
- Doughnut Economics by Kate Reworth
Useful links:
- Lockleaze Loves Solar slides for TRESA (PDF)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rwlw4y7ttumh03s/Lockleaze%20Loves%20Solar%20-%20TRESA.pdf?dl=0 - Lockleaze Loves Solar Flyer
https://www.dropbox.com/s/38bhxfttv2a17ac/Lockleaze%20Loves%20Solar%20-%20flyer.pdf?dl=0 - Lockleaze Loves Solar web page and sign up
https://www.lockleazehub.org.uk/lockleaze-loves-solar - Lockleaze Loves Solar launch event video (20 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAddYeB4fBk&t=840s - CAG Consultant Lockleaze Case Study
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w5y3cenu8ya5u8x/Case%20study%20Lockleaze%20Loves%20Solar%20%28v1.0%29.docx?dl=0