Brighton Energy Co-op

Creating community funded solar energy systems in Brighton.

3,262 t
Est. annual reduction in carbon
emissions (tonnes CO2 eq)

4,500
Est. number of people
who benefit directly

Our story

Brighton Energy Coop’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 from in and out of the Brighton & Hove area – together we’ve already built more than £3million of community-funded solar PV.

BEC was inspired by a trip to the Paris Climate Change Conference COP21 back in 2015 by BEC Director, Will Cottrell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJqwu4jkSDs

Our advice

Brighton Energy Co-op's Will Cottrell - ideas for marketing your 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.

http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/53383/1/hielscherbrightonenergyreport.pdf.

Our metrics

Amount of solar electric produced: 3325mWh
Number of educational facilities given free solar.
Number of local businesses given free solar.
Amount of £s saved by our solar partners.
Number of solar-connected EV chargers.
Number of educational facilities in BEC Solar Education Programme
Number of members investing in community-owned solar electric.
Interest payments received by our members.
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First community-owned solar connected electric vehicle charger in the South
BEC works with colleges & universities to create large scale solar projects
Schools & nurseries depend on BEC to reduce their energy bills
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