Peer mentor community energy fund

Peer mentor community energy fund

Kate Gilmartin, of My Green Investment CIC, has successfully applied for funding from the Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action to run a peer mentoring project for community hydro groups.  Esk Energy (Yorkshire) Limited has been a member of the Community Hydro Forum since it was started by Kate 2 years ago. Kate has asked Esk Energy to help mentor other community hydro groups based on the experience they have gained from the Whitby Esk Energy project.

The Community Hydro Forum was started to assist community schemes to benefit from the experience of other community projects. Both commercial and community projects have the same barriers, hurdles and aims, however, commercial projects have the benefit of doing this multiple times. This gives them the advantage of :

·         Negotiating with regulators;

·         Steering round common pitfalls;

·         Getting the project done for a fraction of the costs;

·         Having the right contacts, experience and know how;

·         Off the peg documents, standard legal documents and financial models.

The community hydro forum wants groups to share their collective knowledge to bring the advantages listed above, to communities undertaking Hydro projects.

To date the Community Hydro Forum has held 3 workshops and has offered practical assistance to groups through shared knowledge, signposting, a support network, learning from previous project experience, passing on practical advice and technical expertise.

Each workshop in this project will target consecutive stages of hydro development. The 4 workshops will cover the following stages:

1.       Is it a goer? 
2.       Licenses to operate and project planning
3.       Contracts and finance 
4.       Building, commissioning and operating

The 1^st workshop – ‘Is it a goer?’ will be held on the 10^th May at Central Library, York. Further details of the 1^st  workshop and its content, will be advertised towards the end of April. 

If this is of interest to you, please drop me an email: kate@mygreeninvestment.co.uk