Our story
We are a cooperative set up to provide affordable, clean energy to communities in and around Market Harborough. Our local energy projects offer community investment opportunities as well as reduced energy costs for land and property owners who host our installations.
We also work with Harborough District Council and other councils in the region to improve access by eligible residents to 'Warm / Healthy Homes' funding.
We are helping to give Harborough more control over its future energy costs and surety of supply, making it an even better place to live.
Harborough Energy was created via Sustainable Harborough – a project funded through the Big Lottery Fund's 'Communities Living Sustainably' programme (up to December 2017). Sustainable Harborough initiated a number of projects with householders, businesses and local producers to raise awareness of sustainability in the community. It provided practical support to individuals and groups who wanted to reduce their carbon footprint and enhance the environment in which they live and work.
We want to keep energy costs low for residents in and around Harborough. The price of energy is expected to rise over the coming years. By setting up viable local energy projects, we can insulate our area from these uncertainties. In doing so, we can help reduce energy costs for landowners and landlords, as well as, provide new investment opportunities – with attractive returns.
We believe that it's time to create sustainable energy at a local level because:
- We produce clean, cheap energy
- Returns are designed to attract long-term community investment
- Landlords, building owners and landowners get reduced energy costs
- The community gets a fund to support community efforts to heat and power homes more effectively
- And the added bonus of bringing down our Green House Gas emissions
How do we work?
Once we have completed the full feasibility and assessment of each potential project, we prepare a formal request for funds, which explains the financial details including potential risks and returns.
Our 'share offer' is then managed by our carefully selected community funding partner via their specialist website.
Our first community share offer funded project was installed successfully in 2016 and allowed us to create our Community Benefit Society called Harborough Solar One (governed by our Rules).
We are constantly scoping out exciting new projects and assessing their feasibility, including any required consents and licences. You might want to look into them if you are a potential investor or if you are a property owner/landlord interested in reducing your energy costs and are seeking ideas.
We also work with Harborourgh District Council and other councils in the region to improve access by eligible residents to 'Warm / Healthy Homes' funding.
Our advice
People will invest in community energy.
It takes a lot of effort, expertise and dedication to formulate and deliver each project.
The lack of government incentives has made delivering community energy projects much harder.
Volunteers are essential to mobilise projects, but ongoing operation requires a wide range of professional services and considerable resources.
Getting ongoing engagement with busy hosts and schools is a challenge.
Our metrics
We monitor the performance of each site (Hourly, Daily, Monthly and Annually) to ensure our community-owned energy systems are operating at maximum efficiency and providing the projected carbon savings.
We ensure the systems deliver reasonable savings for the host site plus provide the community investors with a small income and allow us to repay their capital over the life of the systems.
