Funded by the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) and managed by the West Wales ECO Centre (WWEC) the PPS will provide the advice and assistance necessary to ensure appropriate community renewable energy schemes can be developed as easily and painlessly as possible.

It will have the overall objective of encouraging and facilitating participating communities in a quest to developing community owned renewable energy schemes across the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park area.

What services are offered by the WWEC and the PPS?

Where necessary the PPS is there to:
1. facilitate the whole process
2. motivate individuals
3. identify and liaise with stakeholders and landowners
4. provide advice and guidance
5. identify and apply for funding
6. provide carbon footprinting and energy reduction assistance
7. undertake limited feasibility studies
8. provide our own capital funding of up to £50,000 per year shared between projects we work with
9. leave communities in the position to take on full responsibility of their renewable energy installation(s) at the end of July 2012; each scheme really will be owned by the community for the community

Why ‘community owned’ schemes?
Community renewable energy schemes represent a good opportunity for people to have a greater say in the area in which they, their friends and family live. They allow people to invest in their community, and in return the scheme will provide an income through the selling of electricity or heat. This income could go towards reinstating lost community services or developing new ones, or even to be recycled in further energy schemes creating an even greater benefit.

As part of government targets to reduce emissions and to generate more of our country’s energy from sustainable sources community scale renewable energy installations will form an essential and significant element of the overall solution. If communities do not take a stand for themselves in the very near future, private corporations may fill the gap developing large energy projects that will likely bring little or no economic benefit to local residents.

What is a ‘Community’?
The PPS defines a community in this context as:

a collection of individual addresses within a defined geographic area, ranging from just a few cottages in a hamlet to hundreds of homes in a town or village inclusive of local businesses, charities and community groups

A community renewable energy scheme could be anything from a micro hydropower scheme owned by just three houses to a large wind turbine owned and run by several hundred people.

Which communities are being contacted?
The following table lists those communities identified by the WWEC as being entirely or partially within the PCNPA area. For those settlements lying partially within the PCNPA the PPS is limited to those addresses and schemes within the Park boundary only.

How does our community register its interest in the PPS project?
If your community (or a group of friends or neighbours) is interested in learning more about the PPS scheme or even in participating to investigate a community energy scheme, please write a letter or email stating this intention to Matthew Leese at:

Postal address PPS
West Wales Eco Centre
Lower St Mary Street
Newport
Pembrokeshire
SA42 0TS

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information

What happens next?
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