Yealm Community Energy (YCE)
It is intended that Creacombe solar farm will be owned by the community after construction is completed. Gnaton Farms has worked closely with Yealm Community Energy, a Community Benefit Society serving residents of the parishes of Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo, Holbeton, Yealmpton, Brixton and Wembury to develop the project. YCE was set up by local residents to help secure local supplies of renewable energy and carbon reduction.
A study carried out for YCE shows that currently £7 million per year (5% of earned income) leaves the local community to large energy suppliers for gas and electricity. Of that £2.8m is spent on electricity. YCE hopes to begin to recapture a significant portion this money in the form of dividends for local investors and supplying discounted electricity to local home and businesses.
Community Engagement and Public Support
Extensive community engagement and consultation has been carried out over a number of years, in close cooperation with YCE, with very positive results. In July 2015 two consultation events were held in Yealmpton: a public exhibition at the Community and Resource Centre and a stall at the Yealmpton Show at Kitley. Invitations were sent to over 900 local residents, councillors and the local MPs.
Feedback from both events was overwhelmingly positive with 92% of people supporting or strongly supporting the plans. No-one objected. 73% said they would be interested in investing in the solar farm. This is the highest level of support that the applicant’s professional advisers have recorded.
Consultation is an ongoing process. Residents, councillors and other stakeholders are welcome to contact us at any time with queries about the project.
Parish Councils’ Support
Yealmpton, where the site is located, and the neighbouring parishes of Holbeton and Newton & Noss were all consulted by South Hams District Council during the planning process. We are very pleased that all three parish councils responded positively, voting to either support or no objection - with Yealmpton and Holbeton voting unanimously in favour and only one councillor in Newton & Noss voting against the plans.
Community Benefits
The project will provide substantial benefits, with two separate sources of funds. The local parishes hosting or neighbouring the site will receive funds directly from the project through a Community Parish Fund and Education Fund (over £300,000 total for the lifetime of the solar farm). The community ownership structure will generate an additional separate large Community Benefit Society Fund, targeted at up to c£1million for the lifetime of the project. Benefits are summarised in the following table:
Local generation, ownership and supply
Electricity generated by the solar farm would be fed into the local grid providing a source of locally-generated green energy, equivalent to approximately half of the electricity consumed in the five parishes served by Yealm Community Energy.
Retaining profits and providing discounted local electricity over the long term will result in significant savings to the community. The applicant is working with Open Utility and non-profit energy groups RegenSW and 10:10 to ensure Creacombe will be one of the first projects to participate in the next stage of a pilot programme enabling discounted local electricity sales to residents and businesses at around 7p-8p per unit (instead of c. 13p).
Gnaton Farms already has a track record of supplying electricity direct to local business consumers. The Eden Project and Watergate Bay Hotel both buy from a smaller array on the farm through the Piclo scheme. This is now being rolled out commercially so that businesses much closer to the new proposed development can buy electricity directly from it.
Other community solar projects
The team behind Creacombe solar farm has also worked on many other successful community-owned solar projects, such as Southill, a 4.5 MW project in Charlbury, Oxfordshire owned by Southill Community Energy and Merston, a 5 MW project in Sussex owned by Meadow Blue Community Energy.
“Southill Solar farm has really brought the community together; we are now proud to be generating enough power for 3 parishes from a beautiful site that is also a wildlife haven and will generate a community fund of over £750,000. ”
“Meadow Blue Community Energy, Ovesco and the wider local community are thrilled with Merston solar farm, which we completed in 2016. The community benefit fund will provide funding to local causes to the tune of nearly £4m over the 25 years’ operation of the solar farm, while investors are getting a return of up to 7%.
We would encourage all communities to develop their own renewable energy assets and take control of their energy generation.”