£50,000 is up for grabs to community groups in the Burnham-On-Sea area from a local solar energy group.
Burnham and Weston Energy CIC owns one of the largest community solar projects in the UK, with a 9.3 megawatt solar array made up of nearly 36,000 solar panels on land between Brent Knoll and Brean.
These panels generate electricity for the equivalent of over 2,000 homes and income from the sale of electricity and the feed-in tariff.
“Burnham & Weston Energy’s Sunshine Fund 2022 is now open, with £50,000 available to local organisations who want to benefit their local community and the environment,” says a spokesman.
“We are looking to support new and exciting community-led projects that will enhance local people’s quality of life and protect or improve our local environment.”
The group says projects it imagines it may fund are activities such as:
- Growing local food – community gardens or orchards
- Improving our natural environment – projects such as nature trails, rewilding, and re-planting that highlight and improve our natural environment, and help people enjoy it more.
- Repair, reuse and sharing – repair cafes, libraries of things, and other opportunities that build communities around reducing the amount of unwanted items that go to landfill.
- Climate education and communication – events, activities and installations that engage and interest people in the environment and taking climate action such as art and media projects, climate citizens assemblies, citizen science projects, youth climate action, forest schools, workshops, film nights and talks.
- Low carbon skills – building your community’s capability to become a low carbon community and to ensure a fairer, greener, future for all. This could include Carbon Literacy Training, supporting people in your community to develop skills such as Electric Vehicle maintenance, repair, sustainable making and manufacturing.
- Sustainable transport – helping people to travel more easily using sustainable transport options and to leave their car at home more often whether they’re wanting to get their shopping home, or travel to school or work. This might include community electric car clubs, community charging hubs, local walk or bike to school groups, or community borrow-a-(electric)-bicycle schemes.
- Improving resource efficiency – energy efficiency, water conservation, waste reduction – projects, including renewable energy, that improve places (such as halls, centres, allotments, parks and empty spaces) by reducing carbon emissions, and encourage more use of the space and so strengthening their community.
- Community net zero plans and actions – community-led projects that help the community plan and implement actions to reduce local carbon emissions or adapt to the local impacts of climate change.
The spokesman adds: “Burnham & Weston Energy’s Sunshine Fund also offers a revolving loan to schools and community organisations. The aim is to help them fund the survey and consultancy needed to unlock government zero interest loans and grants (for example, Salix funding) that will finance the installation of low carbon measures in their buildings.”
“However, Burnham & Weston Energy is open to your ideas – readers will undoubtedly have great ideas we haven’t even thought of! We want to encourage you to think big in terms of the positive impact you will have on your local community.”
For more information about the Sunshine Fund, and whether Burnham & Weston Energy is the right funder for your project, read the Sunshine Fund 2022 Guidance notes.
If you choose to apply, you will be asked to send an Expression of Interest by Monday 31st January by clicking here.
