Northumberland town set to enjoy place in the sun
Dec 22 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal
A NORTH East town hopes to harness the power of the sun after being chosen as a blueprint for sustainable living.
Berwick has won up to £500,000 in the Government’s Low Carbon Communities Challenge and will use the money to pay for 50 homes to have solar panels installed.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched the competition in July to find communities keen to be at the forefront of moving to a low carbon economy, and more than 300 cities, towns and villages registered interest.
Berwick and the nine other winning locations will benefit from a £10m fund. The town’s Community Trust and Community Renewable Energy will use its grant to pay for the panels.
In return for financial and technical assistance, people living and working in Berwick will work alongside the Government and contribute to finding low carbon solutions to benefit the whole country. Successes from the project will then be rolled out nationally.
The solar panel project will generate money for Berwick through the Government’s clean energy cashback scheme to be launched in April.
Peter Watts, chairman of Berwick Community Trust, said: “This project will allow Berwick to take a major step forward in becoming a low carbon community and act as a powerful driver to further action.
“The income generated will be reinvested in renewables projects and behaviour change initiatives and we are delighted that DECC have been able to support us.”
Ross Weddle, managing director of Community Renewable Energy, added: “CoRE is delighted to receive this support for this project.
“One North East and DECC have both supported CoRE in the past and this is a further endorsement of our work with communities.”
Energy and Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock said: “We’ve had more than 300 communities register their interest with the Low Carbon Communities Challenge, so there’s a real appetite out there to save energy to help tackle global warming and save money on fuel bills.
“The 10 winning projects will now spend the money on things like community wind turbines, solar panels, heat pumps, insulation or green transport projects to cut emissions.
“The UK has the most ambitious emissions reduction commitments in the world and communities like Berwick will help to develop the policies we need in the future to make the successful transition to a low carbon economy.”
Around a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating, lighting and powering electrical appliances in homes.
By 2050 this needs to be almost zero if the UK is to cut its emissions by 80%.
DECC is now looking for an additional 12 communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to take part in the next phase of the challenge.
