What is community energy?
Community energy is owning and operating renewable energy in your local community. This could be rooftop solar, solar farms, or wind turbines. It could also be shared renewable district heating systems or community owned microgrids. Ultimately, is it is about having the control and ownership over the energy generation, and the decision-making power as to where profits are allocated. This will make sure the benefits are spread within the community and do not leak elsewhere.
Milton Keynes Community Energy operates through the Wolverton Community Energy not-for-profit community benefit society. We cap any shareholder investment returns. Community benefit is invested in our designated Milton Keynes city wide area.
Contact us to register your interest in joining our community.
Why do we need community energy?
To be frank about it, we need community energy because our energy system is broken. It’s simply not meeting the needs of people burdened by soaring energy costs, nor is it protecting our environment, which is being destroyed by our fossil fuel use. We need community energy to give us locally-owned, decentralised renewable energy that is crucial for addressing the climate crisis, empowering communities, and democratising energy across Milton Keynes and the whole of the UK.
Community energy keeps the control and benefits of renewables in local hands. This multiplies the impact it can have. It is not just about solar energy reducing carbon emissions, but also investing locally so that other renewable energy or home retrofit projects can be funded within the city. Shareholder profits are never the priority.
What are the benefits of choosing community-owned solar rather than paying to install your own arrays for an organisation?
When we partner with organisations, we pay the capital costs for installing the solar. We also pay all operation and maintenance costs, replace defective equipment, cover insurance, and manage all other aspects of the solar arrays. With Milton Keynes Community Energy, you only get charged for the solar energy you consume on your premises, at cheaper than market prices.
We also cap annual price increases, so any partner of ours has the confidence that they have long term stable pricing, that they can forecast for the entire length of our agreement. If you are interested, get in touch.
How does Milton Keynes Community Energy operate?
The operational heart of Milton Keynes Community Energy is the Wolverton Community Energy not-for profit community benefit society. This houses our renewable assets.
As a member owned organisation, we abide by the Co-operative UK’s community benefit rules. Anyone who invests in our society will become a member. Once a member, it is one member one vote. Members vote at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on things like how profits should be allocated, and how much interest to pay share investors.
Members also vote for the Directors of the Society. If they become a Director themselves, they help to drive the strategy and operations of the whole organisation. Four out of five of our current Directors are Milton Keynes residents.
Get in touch to volunteer to join us.
How can I get involved in Milton Keynes Community Energy?
You can become involved in anyone (or all) of the following ways:
- As one of our members, by investing with us
- As a landlord, or building owner, who will put our community owned-solar on your rooftops and the tenants who then buy that solar energy.
- As a funder of our programmes.
- As a partner, or supplier in helping us run our programmes.
What support is available for private landlords and social housing?
Our community energy offer is available for any organisation where there are suitable roofs and enough consumption of the energy generated in the buildings below. That includes private landlords, housing associations and social housing.
We pay the capital costs for installing the solar. We also pay all operation and maintenance costs, replace defective equipment, cover insurance, and manage all other aspects of the solar arrays. We charge the organisation only for the solar energy they then consume on the premises, at cheaper than market prices.
We also cap annual price increases, so any partner of ours has the confidence that they have long term stable pricing, that they can forecast for the entire length of our agreement. Contact us for more information or to discuss a potential solar array site.
Retrofit
If the need is for retrofit, there are grants available for social housing and private tenants. For more details, look on our Home Energy MK website at: https://homenergymk.org/grants/
How can homeowners participate in clean energy initiatives?
Browse through our Home Energy MK website to find independent, expert advice across the site. This includes the Housewarming Guides, available free to download, and which cover every area of retrofitting so that you are armed with enough information to ask better questions from contractors. Find our Whole House Planner, where you can search for a house like yours and get ideas. Or take a look at our tips on thermal imaging and how you can borrow a camera and understand how to stop heat loss in your own home, and cut bills.
Apply for any programmes that you are interested in.
Sign up to our mailing list, so that you hear of any more that we might be running.
And remember to share your MK retrofit story with our community.
What types of renewable energy projects do you support?
We are looking for rooftops that can take a minimum of 20kW solar and that can use the solar energy we produce. We are also looking for land that might be appropriate for a solar farm.
We would love to hear from you if you are developing a community led renewable energy project of your own, or coming together on a community heating project, or interested in developing a site for a wind turbine.
Contact us about any potential community led renewable energy project across our MK designated area so that we can explore how we can support you with it.
How does community-owned renewable energy benefit Milton Keynes?
We are registered as a community benefit society and, by company law, our area is Milton Keynes. All our work is directed towards providing benefit within these boundaries.
This could be our renewable assets, the retrofit programmes we run through Home Energy MK, or any extra projects we can run through our community benefit investments.
Milton Keynes residents/ building owners could benefit from community-owned solar or other renewables. They might benefit from the cheaper, greener energy we produce; or they could take part in one of our many retrofit programmes.
All investors in MK Community Energy will become members, can earn share interest on their investment, and will have the right to vote on key decisions each year. They could also become Directors, and lead the strategy for MK Community Energy, directing where and how any funds could be spent.