The February 2012 Newsletter can be downloaded here.
We hope you enjoy reading it and post any public comments in the space provided below.
CariadTCooke
Feb 082012
Artist's Impression of Kelham Island Hydro
Sheffield’s Kelham Island Hydro project was granted planning permission yesterday. The scheme has been developed by Sheffield Renewables [1] with support from Regeneration Officers at Sheffield City Council and Kelham Island Museum, part of Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust. Gaining planning permission is the first milestone towards installing a new water wheel near Kelham Island Museum.
Rob Pilling, Managing Director at Sheffield Renewables said “The Kelham Island Hydro scheme will bring an iconic renewable energy scheme to this popular site in the heart of the city. The project is driven by local volunteers, inspiring members of the community to contribute their time and work together. Gaining planning permission is a huge boost to our efforts and we are hopeful that we could see a water wheel return to Kelham Island by 2014″.
The Kelham Island Hydro scheme comprises a ‘modern’ water wheel to be located in an existing wheel pit and channel system that was used for water power as far back as the Middle Ages. The replacement wheel will be designed for a flow of 2 tonnes of water per second, generating around 75,000kWh of electricity per year. This is the amount of electricity consumed by about 20 typical family homes [2], providing a saving of around 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year [3]. Alongside generating clean energy, it will be an inspiring attraction, reviving part of Sheffield’s industrial heritage to stimulate interest in renewable energy.
Initially there were some concerns about the plans, expressed by people living nearby, including the design of the protective structure surrounding the wheel. As a community and volunteer led social enterprise, Sheffield Renewables relies upon and values the support of local Sheffield people. They responded to comments by re-designing the protective structure to reduce its height, ensure that its appearance is in keeping with the local area and encourage people to view the wheel as an attractive feature. Gaining planning permission shows that Sheffield City Council and the Environment Agency are happy this and other issues have been satisfactorily addressed.
Sheffield Renewables can now continue to obtain the other permissions and licenses needed to develop Kelham Island Hydro. They gained planning permission for the Jordan Dam Hydro scheme [4], a second water power project near Meadowhall, in March 2011. Jordan Dam Hydro is more advanced, with a Community Share Offer [5] expected later this year. The Community Share Offer will give people and organisations the opportunity to contribute to the half a million pound building costs. Together the two projects highlight the potential for community led renewable energy generation in Sheffield.
Ends
Media Contact Details
info@sheffieldrenewables.org.uk
0114 250 8367
Editors Notes
[1] Sheffield Renewables is a community and a social enterprise that develops, funds, builds, owns and operates renewable energy schemes. This means that we are run by and for local people and also that we are not-for-proffit. Any surplus money generated is re-invested to support local sustainability. Much of our work is carried out by volunteers, which helps to reduce our costs.
Our schemes will contribute to sity wide efforts to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for increasing local renewable energy provision. We reinforce these direct carbon savings through local outreach, communications and education. Our work also helps to strengthen social cohesion and community resilience by encouraging people to work together and to share a common purpose,as well asby developing community owned assets. In pursuing our aims we work across the city for the benefit of everyone, while giving an additional focus to those areas close to our project sites.
[2] This is based on an average UK household electricity consumption of 3,935kWh per household per year. Provided by the Energy Saving Trust (see their website).
[3] Based on a carbon dioxide emission rate of 0.537kg CO2/kWh of grid generated electricity from The Carbon Trust (see their website).
[4] Jordan Dam Hydro Scheme: Sheffield Renewables’ initial assessment suggests that the scheme might cost around £450,000 to build and could generate around 380MWh/year. Sourcing this much electricity from hydroelectic generation rather than the national grid would save about 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Further information about our ongoing development work at Jordan Dam can be found in the Jordan Dam Hydro project section of our website.
[5] Sheffield Renewables is offering ‘Community Shares’ as a social investment for public spirited and environmentally aware individuals and organisations. The aim is to provide an attractive ethical investment opportunity: investors receive a modest return, complimented by wider social and environmental benefits. The ‘Community Shares’ concept has been developed through a joint initiative of the Development Trusts Association (now Locality) and Co-operatives UK (see their website).
Jan 042012
Now that 2012 has begun we’d like to wish you a Happy New ‘International Year of Co-operatives’. Movements such as the global Occupy and national UKUNCUT highlight an increasing interest in ways of doing business that put people before profit. So it’s perfect timing for the United Nations to have declared 2012 International Year of Co-operatives. Throughout the year we will be publishing blog articles on the different ways co-operatives, such as ourselves, help to build a better world.
Sheffield Renewables is all about co-operation, with our progress dependent on our volunteers contributing their time and skills, investors contributing cash and supporters keeping us going, e.g. voting for us in the EnergyShare national funding competition. Alongside our volunteers, our two part-time employees also play an important part in our work.
The co-operative movement as a whole is a significant part of the big picture. Globally co-operatives employ over 100 million people, and in 1994 the UN estimated that co-operatives make the livelihoods of 3 billion people secure.
We want to enable volunteers to contribute as much as possible towards our activities but hope that we can continue to support this with co-operative Green Jobs.
More information on the International Year of Co-operatives is available on their website.
Two Sheffield groups are desperate for people to help them win British Gas cash to bring renewable energy to South Yorkshire and are calling for everyone to go online and make it a reality.
Public voting for Millhouses Mill Buildings [1] and Sheffield Renewables [2] to win over £125,000 towards two local community renewable energy projects ends at 5pm this Saturday.
So far over 17,000 people have taken part in EnergyShare [3], a national X-Factor style vote, made possible by British Gas and River Cottage. Surprisingly two Sheffield projects made it into this final stage of the funding competition, in different voting categories. The competition divides community renewable energy projects into three categories large, medium and small depending on the amount of cash they need. Sheffield Renewables is in the large category and Millhouses Mill Buildings is in the small. Yorkshire pride and wider national support have ensured that both Sheffield Renewables and Millhouses Mill Buildings only need to beat one other scheme to win their categories. Local MPs have also added their support.
Both schemes have made impressive progress with Sheffield Renewables in second and Millhouses third in their respective categories. With less than one week to go they are calling for one last push to take them to the top of the leaderboard.
“It has been a great start for both groups with lots of votes being registered for us but we need to get the message as far and wide as possible. We have had support from loads of people, including our local MPs Meg Munn, Nick Clegg and Paul Blomfield providing quotes of support [4], but this last week is vitally important to win the grant. The money could ensure the success of the projects. We have provided links through from our website to make voting as easy as possible and volunteers have made a video and an animation on YouTube to show how the project will work. It is also a great opportunity for two Sheffield projects to co-operate to win cash for South Yorkshire” said Cariad, Project Officer for Sheffield Renewables.
River Cottage’s Hugh Fernley Whittingstall says “We have already seen at energyshare.com communities who through either saving money on their energy bills or creating income through energy generation have reinvigorated community facilities. The funding available is not simply about turbines or solar PV, it’s about enabling people to make their communities more sustainable – both environmentally and economically”
Quick Steps to Vote:
1. Click on this link.
2. Left click on the word ‘Vote’ that is next to ‘Millhouses Park’ or ‘Sheffield Renewables’
3. Follow the instructions that appear.
If you have any problems, further details on the voting process are illustrated here (http://tiny.cc/kntxd), in our photo album hosted on Facebook. You can view this even if you don’t have a Facebook account.
4. If you have not previous registered, check your email and follow the link sent to you by EnergyShare to confirm your vote.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 3 for the scheme you didn’t vote for first time round. This is a lot quicker than the first time if you registered as part of your first vote.
Voting closes 5pm Saturday 3rd December
Voting Incentives
Everyday there is a free prize draw where some people that voted that day win a River Cottage cook book or British Gas home energy efficiency pack which could save upto £125 off your fuel bills each year.
If you use this form to invite three people you know to vote, and they vote, you will be entered into a free prize draw to win an exclusive dinning experience for four at the River Cottage canteen.
Millhouses Mill Buildings
Millhouses mill buildings is a project run jointly by Friends of Millhouses Park
(http://friendsofmillhousespark.org) and Sheffield City Council. The mill buildings site gave Millhouses its name, and there’s been a corn mill on this part of the River Sheaf since the 13th century. Awarded £50,000 Heritage Lottery Funding in April 2011, the group are urgently seeking match funding for their renewable installations as part of the refurbishment work for the small mill building; a 3.78kWp solar PV array (to be installed by local firm Positive Footprint) and ~9kW ground source heat pump would save over .5 tonnes of CO2 per year [5].
Artist's impression of our Jordan Dam Hydro power scheme
If enough people sign up and vote for Sheffield Renewables they will win £100,000 towards Jordan Dam Hydro [6], taking Sheffield a step closer to its first community owned water power scheme. Once up and running Jordan Dam Hydro is expected to generate as much electricity as used by 80 typical family homes [7], saving 170 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year [8]. Any profits generated by selling electricity produced by Jordan Dam Hydro will be used to develop further Sheffield energy projects.
To promote the vote, Sheffield Renewables volunteers have released an online animation, poster, draft email text and tracked the competition’s progress [9]. You can follow both projects on Facebook with Sheffield Renewables also using Twitter. If you get the ‘energyshare bug’ you can track the progress of your favourite schemes on the energyshare website at www.energyshare.com/groups/followers/#listing.
Sheffield Renewables has already raised over £65,000 towards developing Jordan Dam Hydro through an exclusive Community Share offer [10]. The £100,000 from energyshare will give them the grant funding they need for the scheme to go ahead. A public share offer will take place next year, giving everyone a chance to invest and become a member. Loans will be used to cover any shortfall.
ENDS
Media Contact Details
Cariad Thomas-Cooke
cariad@SheffieldRenewables.org.uk
07951 741 382
Editors Notes
[1] Friends of Millhouses Park is a registered charity and works in partnership with Sheffield City Council and South West Community Assembly to provide a Better Park for Everyone. Several new projects have been completed in the park in recent years with funding from (amongst others) Sheffield Town Trust, James Neill Trust Fund, Viridor Landfill Tax Credits, Yorkshire Water and Big Lottery.
[2] Sheffield Renewables is a community and a social enterprise that develops, funds, builds, owns and operates renewable energy schemes. This means that we are run by and for local people and also that we are not-for-profit. Surplus money we earn is re-invested to support local sustainability. Much of our work is carried out by volunteers, which helps to reduce our costs.
Our schemes will contribute to city wide efforts to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for increasing local renewable energy provision. We reinforce these direct carbon savings through local outreach, communications and education. Our work also helps to strengthen social cohesion and community resilience by encouraging people to work together and share a common purpose, as well as by
developing community owned assets. In pursuing our aims we work across the city for the benefit of everyone, while giving an additional focus to those areas close to our project sites.
[3] Energyshare is an initiative by the organisers of River Cottage, Hugh’s Fish Fight, Chicken Out and Landshare. It acknowledges the impact that energy has on everyone’s lives and changing UK attitudes towards energy. They hope to help something really big happen by bringing together people, communities, organisations and the media. This is done through an online community, funding competition made
possible by British Gas and electricity tariff from British Gas (see their website)
[4] Meg Munn, MP for Sheffield Heeley where a Sheffield Renewables office is based said “This project is a great example of how local organisations can work with local people to make a real difference to our environment. I’ve already voted for it and want to give the Sheffield Renewables team my full support for this project.”
Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam said “I have been impressed by the work undertaken by Sheffield Renewables to develop a Community Hydro Electric Plant on the River Don in Sheffield. This initiative – if successful – will benefit the local community by providing it with naturally renewable energy and also will contribute to city wide efforts to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I hope its bid to Energyshare will be supported by the people of Sheffield.”
Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central where Sheffield Renewables’ other office is based said “It’s a fantastic project and I really hope you can do it.”
[5] (estimated by our installer, based upon SAP rating); GSHP 9kW installation (estimated by our sustainability consultant Dr Vicki Shaw, using Energy efficiency in buildings, CIBSE Guide, by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, 2004)
[6] More information on Jordan Dam Hydro is available on this Sheffield Renewables webpage. (www.SheffieldRenewables.org.uk)
[7] This is based on an average UK household electricity consumption of 3,935kWh per household per year. Provided by the Energy Saving Trust (see their website) The scheme is expected to generate 310MWh per year.
[8] Based on a carbon dioxide emission rate of 0.537kg CO2/kWh of grid generated electricity from The Carbon Trust (see their website)
[9] Original Sheffield Renewables press release from start of competition (Tuesday 15th November) is available here:
(http://tiny.cc/6u4cd)
Details of the competition and our supporting materials, including an online animation are available here:
(http://tiny.cc/fxj15)
A new youTube video where Sheffield Renewables volunteers talk about the project is available here:
(http://tiny.cc/cyr2h) credit to this must go to Lindsey Young
A series of daily updates tracking the course of the competition is available here:
(http://tiny.cc/n5iru)
[10] Sheffield Renewables is offering ‘Community Shares’ as a social investment for public spirited and environmentally aware individuals and organisations. The aim is to provide an attractive ethical investment opportunity: investors receive a modest return, complemented by wider social and environmental benefits. The ‘Community Shares’ concept has been developed through a joint initiative of the Development Trusts Association (now Locality) and Co-operatives UK (see their website)
Nov 172011
Volunteers gathered to help Sheffield Renewables win energyshare (photographer Robert Streeter)
Volunteers filled the room on Tuesday evening, eager to find out more about energyshare and how they could help out. The voting had been going less than 6 hours and Radio Sheffield had already broadcast a call to vote on our behalf.
Once they realised that energyshare could provide £100,000 towards Jordan Dam Hydro (all of the grant funding needed for the project to go ahead), they couldn’t wait to vote. By voting they are helping us generate as much electricity as used by 80 typical family homes and save 170 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. They were keen to know about the following:
How do we vote?
Those who have registered in advance will be pleased to know that energyshare has made voting even easier.
1. Go to www.energyshare.com/voting
2. Left click on the word ‘Vote’ that is next to ‘Sheffield Renewables’
3. Follow the instructions that appear.
If you have any problems, further details on the voting process are illustrated here, in our photo album hosted on Facebook. You can view this even if you don’t have a Facebook account.
Voting closes at 5pm on Saturday 3rd December so we need everyone to make a big effort in a short period of time to stand a chance of winning.
What else can we do?
As with our co-operative, everyone voting on energyshare can only create one account and have one set of votes. This makes it really important for us to get everyone we know to vote too. We have made some promotional materials available below to help:
- Suggested email text is available for downloading and editing here
- Images showing how to vote, step-by-step, for anyone that has problems can be found here
- Poster/hand-outs design that can be downloaded to print or shared online. You can download the image below to print off and use it as an A4 poster here or share online, there’s also a double sided version for anyone that wants to make A5 flyers here (please check with the owner of the space as appropriate).
Please pass on. For paper copies email cariad@sheffieldrenewables.org.uk
- An online animation, hosted on YouTube, for people to upload to websites and share in any way they can think of, can be accessed here and viewed below
- There’s another video of a couple of our volunteers talking about Sheffield Renewables and what we will do with the £100,000 if we win here.
This video is available courtesy of Lyndsey Young
- We will also be providing regular updates via this blog entry, Facebook and Twitter.
Thousands of people will be voting in this competition so we need to get everyone talking about it and voting for Sheffield Renewables to get the cash.
Other Schemes
Another Sheffield based scheme, Millhouses Mill Buildings has got through to this final round. They want a much smaller amount to help them install renewable energy as part of the refurbishment of buildings in Millhouses Park. As they need a lot less cash than us, they are in the small category. The volunteers that live near Millhouses were keen to vote for both and we think it would be great if everyone else did.
We are friends with another project, in the meduim sized category, Tutbury Ecopower. They have been encouraging their voters to vote for Sheffield Renewables so it would be good if our voters returned the favour.
Many of the volunteers left with ideas of people to start sharing the excitement with. We hope you’ll join us in voting and possibly even catch the ‘energyshare bug’.
Thank-you in advance for your vote and support!
