Our story
Brighton Energy Co-op (BEC) was inspired by a trip to the Paris Climate Change Conference COP21 back in 2015 by BEC Director, Will Cottrell. Brighton Energy Co-op's idea is simple: everyone puts in a bit of cash and collectively we build big solar energy systems. Money from selling solar electric gets distributed back to members, and to our Community Fund.
We have hundreds of members both in and outside the Brighton & Hove area, making us the largest solar installer in the South East. Together we've raised more than £5 million for 4843.76 KWp of community-funded rooftop solar PV. To date we’ve produced nearly 22,000 MWh of cleaner, greener solar electric, saving over 4,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
BEC's Community Fund is something we're proud of and is an important benefit from what we do. The Fund ensures local school children are engaged in renewables technology and carbon reduction. Since 2020, we've worked with national charity Energy Sparks to deliver key stage curriculum materials to the kids. We've offered a grant to each of our 13 Solar Schools, to help onboard teachers and school business managers to the platform.
We've also forged a new relationship between Brighton & Hove City Council's Energy Team and Energy Sparks, so all Brighton & Hove schools can participate in our renewable energy education programme, whether they have a BEC solar system or not. And in the spirit of teamwork, we've held skills-share meetings with fellow community energy group, BHESCo, to ensure their solar schools could get on board.
Our advice
Here are some of BEC Will Cottrell's ideas for marketing your own community energy project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08qPMRITABY
A lot of useful research is contained in this award-winning MSc dissertation done by a SPRU researcher from Sussex University, who shadowed BEC for a couple of years: https://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/53383/1/hielscherbrightonenergyreport.pdf
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by total MWh of electricity produced; tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided; number of local educational facilities and businesses given free solar; number of solar-connected EV chargers; number of schools and students participating in BEC Solar Education Programme; number of members investing in community-owned solar electric and interest payments they received; and the amount of funding allocated to local projects and educational initiatives from the Community Fund.
