It been quite a journey! Find out where we started & the highlights along the way...
Plymouth City Council recognised the role of community energy in addressing fuel poverty and carbon emissions in the city by finding founder members and helping to set up Plymouth Energy Community as an independent organisation, run by volunteer members.
We started with a simple service, helping people save money by assisting them to switch energy supplier or tariff.
We secured funding to employ two fuel debt advisors to help residents struggling to write off their debt.
We set up another Community Benefit Society to fund, install and manage community-owned renewable energy generation.
We launched our first share offer, offering shares of £50 - £100,000. We raised £600,000 in just six weeks!
We installed free solar panels on 21 schools and community organisations, using the funds raised through shares and a loan from Plymouth City Council.
Thanks to funding from Nesta and Cities of Service, we launched our first volunteer training programme, giving local residents the skills to help set up our Energy Team. We employed a volunteer coordinator and our first energy advisor.
We hosted a wonderful first birthday party at Plymouth Aquarium, bringing together members and partner organisations.
We partnered with British Gas and Plymouth City Council to deliver one of the countries biggest ECO-funded residential retrofit schemes. Residents were able to get heavily subsidised external wall insulation added to over 700 solid wall properties.
We launched our second share offer, raising £850,000.
We used the shares raised, and another loan from Plymouth City Council, to build another ten roofs. This included our largest on Plymouth Life Centre.
We were ‘elluvaproud’ to be crowned with The Observer Ethical Award for Community Energy in London. This was an amazing accolade and one that also rewarded us with £5000 in prize winnings from National Grid, who sponsored the award. We used the winnings to build our smallest solar roof on the Shekinah Mission.
With a bus full of impassioned members, we went to London to join the Climate March, marking the start of the historic Paris Climate Conference of Parties.
We secured funding through The Healthy Homes Fund from the British Gas Trust to address the impact that poor housing can have on health. During the year long project we worked with health providers to target individuals with existing health conditions exacerbated by the cold or damp.
Four Greens Community Trust approached us to help turn derelict land into a community asset. What to do... solar subsidies were being reduced and we didn't have much time...
We did it! Using a bridging loan and social finance, we built a 4.1MW ground-mounted array in Ernesettle, generating enough clean energy to meet the annual needs of 1000 homes.
The Big Lottery gave us almost £500,000 to use for 4 years to help people living with disabilities and illness in Plymouth stay warm and well
We have been helping local schools and businesses retrofit their buildings with LED lighting, saving them £££s on their energy bills.
We raised £1m through a retrospective share offer, paying back some of the finance borrowed to build the array.
With funding from our Warm & Well project, we commissioned fellow social enterprise, Fotonow, to work with residents to personalise fuel poverty, to tell their story with pictures not meaningless statistics. The exhibition was launched at our AGM and has since travelled all over the country, to Europe and even to Parliament.
We employed five new advisors and started a new project in Ham, Devonport and St Budeaux. Home owners and private renters receive free home visits and energy saving measures such as LED lighting, draught proofing and heating controls. This was funded by Interreg's Climate Action Neighbourhood programme.
In partnership with Regen, we held a full day and evening event as part of Plymouth Social Enterprise Festival, with guest speakers including Howards Johns. We showcased Cold Realities for the first time.
We refreshed our invite to members of the community to join us for a free training programme, helping them to utilise their skills to support our work.
Partnering again with Regen, we held our biggest and boldest event yet! With guest speaker Lord John Bird, comedian Matt Winning, Professor Iain Stewart and our own PEC Pal, PG.
We started our venture into community-led housing. Aiming to build genuinely affordable, zero carbon homes in Plymouth, owned and run by the community.
Extending our mission to creatively communicate our message, we partnered with Art & Energy CIC to explore making solar artworks. Running a number of workshops, we now have an active art and energy group.
We secured funding through Plymouth City Council's Warm Homes Fund to allow for two of our Energy Advisors to work within healthcare provider, Livewell Southwest. This allows us to reach more isolated and vulnerable residents, suffering health complaints from damp, cold homes.
Thanks to the Naturesave Trust we welcomed 5 thermahives, a load of native Black Bees and our enthusiastic community to Ernesettle. Welcoming the bees to their new home in style, we hosted a 'Bee Solar Party'.
We started a European funded collaboration with partners in France to explore combining solar and heat pumps as a sustainable energy solution.
Our AGMs were held as part of 'The Power of Creativity: Art, energy & the climate emergency'.