The Financial TImes has drawn attention to a very interesting series of projects in the North-East.
‘Community owning the the means of energy production’ is the shout. Developer and project manager H2ope runs the existing hydro-electric project at near Manchester, and now has an investment scheme running for 2 new hydro projects.
It seems the power at the Torrs project, which went live in 2008, is sold locally.
The model is very interesting and I hope to find out more. How nice for the locals living in one village to all put in some money, and then own their own power station – hydro, wind or solar – but the problem is always whether you provide your own network (private wires) or whether an investor can only buy his electricity from you in name (a model such as Good Energy) and the real electricity is sold to the grid.
Sounds like fun.
It was also featured in the Guardian on the 29th May.