Recently, I had a productive meeting with Belper Community Energy, a local group focused on creating local energy opportunities. Belper is in a strong position to be a community energy producer – it has opportunities for solar, hydro, and wind.
Belper Community Energy are currently looking at solar opportunities on buildings and carparks across Belper. I think this is a great opportunity, especially solar panel canopies on the coppice car park – which they are looking at. It would mean that we can generate clean energy, cut bills for local people, and not have to use our precious green belt.
The Labour government believes in community energy projects. It is investing over £1 billion from Great British Energy to support local community energy to deliver at least 15 GW of clean energy generation and storage by the end of the decade.
The government recently published its Local Power Plan. This plan seeks to addresses some key barriers that community energy groups have often been concerned with, giving better deals if energy providers trade locally. We need to support local energy trading so that community energy groups see a return on investment, communities get lower bills, and we can further expand community energy schemes.
I look forward to supporting Belper Community Energy as they look to establish projects across Belper.