Our story
Gwent Energy CIC is a Community Interest Company with our local area at heart. We help individuals, communities and small businesses to benefit from renewable energy.
We started in 2008, helping communities to fund and build community-owned wind turbines. Since then we've also installed a number of solar PV systems across Gwent.
Ebenezer Baptist Church is a friendly, welcoming community hub in the heart of the Gwent Valleys. The Church runs vital services for the community including our local food bank, as well as things like hearing aid battery replacement.
Gwent Energy CIC installed a 10kWp solar PV system with 10kWh of battery storage to reduce the carbon footprint of our community, and the results have been fantastic.
Before we installed the solar PV, Ebenezer Baptist Church had an electricity bill of about £300 per month. It is now around £70, which is a massive 77% reduction!
Our advice
Despite community groups having big committees, it is usually only one or two members who really spur the project on. Identify who those passionate people are.
In areas where grant funding is unavailable, re-evaluate the benefits. If the cost of having a solar pv system were split across the 25 years' life of the system and compared with how much electricity the building currently uses, it would cost some community groups only 7p/kW unit for 25 years. Just spending available grant funding does not always result in the community benefitting – a good bespoke system does.
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by the amount of renewable energy generated locally and carbon emissions reduced; engagement and investment in community-owned energy schemes; energy and money saved per year by the church; and support for other cost-saving, clean energy community projects.
