Welsh community renewables developer Egni Co-op has become the largest rooftop solar co-op in the UK.
Egni, which made the achievement while the UK celebrates Community Energy Fortnight (14-27 June), has installed 4.3MWp of solar capacity on 88 sites across Wales – including solar sites are in Amman Valley at Garnant Golf Club and Ysgol y Bedol.
All surplus from the project goes into climate change education in schools.
The co-op’s share offer is still open for investments from £50 and it has raised £4.38m to date of its £4.6m target. Further information on www.egni.coop
Co-director Rosie Gillam said: “We are extremely proud of this achievement, it shows that Wales is a co-operative country. Most of our capacity has been installed over the past year and we were only able to do this due to some brilliant partnerships with Welsh local authorities.
“We’ve also had a huge amount of support from other energy co-ops from across the UK which would not happen in any other sector. Just one example was Low Carbon Hub in Oxfordshire who had an enquiry from the Pullmaflex Ltd factory in Ammanford – they passed it to us as we’re just down the road.
“We’ve now installed 200kW of solar there, one of our biggest installs. Nearly all that power is used in the factory, supporting local jobs through cheaper energy and tackling climate change.”
Co-director Dan McCallum said community energy co-ops such as Egni can help tackle the climate crisis.
He said: “Egni saved its sites £108,000 in electricity costs last year and prevented the emission of more than 1,000 tonnes of CO2.
“The Bevan Foundation and Unltd recently published an insightful report which highlighted the added value that social enterprises can bring to delivery with the public sector, retaining maximum value in Wales and achieving real scale.”
Jim Cardy from the Welsh Government Energy Service said: “This is great news of Wales taking the lead, particularly during the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference which the UK is hosting in November in Glasgow. Welsh Government Energy Service has supported Egni with grants and advice in the last year.”
