Gill Wyatt (left) & Dawn Rivers (right)
We thought you might be interested to hear more about ECOE’s achievements and struggles since we started in February. In this special news feature we invite Dawn Rivers, Exeter City Council’s community involvement and inclusion officer, to interview ECOE Exec Chair Gill Wyatt, giving a look behind the scenes, an update on finding suitable roofs and the trials and tribulations of doing something ground-breaking and inspirational.(10th September 2014)
Dawn: Tell me something about your role in ECOE…
Gill: It’s a diverse role as I currently occupy both the Chair and the Chief Executive positions. As Chair I support the Directors in achieving the aims and objectives of the organisation and act as a figurehead to the outside world. As Chief Executive I manage and have oversight of the organisation’s activities – which at the moment means making sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to get Solar PV1 off the ground.
Dawn: So what’s involved in a typical day for you?
Gill: Where do I start? Well I know where I do start every day and that is working through my emails – and I get a lot of them!
To take last Friday as an example, I received information from a survey of Willowbrook School on the potential for community-owned solar PV on their roofs, so spent some time analysing and clarifying the figures with the installers.
After that I had meetings with prospective roof-owners – a community centre and a private landowner, I spoke to Pure Leapfrog – who provide financial services to energy co-ops – about underwriting our share offer, did some research into contacts for various sites we are looking at and had a chat with Joe Smee, ECOE Executive Director, about our priorities for the following week. I also prepared a PowerPoint and finished the day presenting it to the Exeter Labour Party alongside colleagues from Transition Exeter.
Dawn: I see what you mean when you say it’s diverse. But what has ECOE achieved since the launch meeting in February?
Gill: In a nutshell we’ve gone from eight motivated and experienced members of the community to a professionalised organisation working towards the launch of Exeter’s first ever community-owned renewable energy project.
We have developed a robust financial model, a business plan at its final draft, and a first draft of our share offer prospectus, ready for roofs to be added in as they are agreed. We’ve talked to a range of organisations about using their roof space and have now arranged for the five sites we are currently progressing to be surveyed.
Along the way we’ve raised over £15,000 in funding and donations, organised the Big Community Energy Weekend, recruited a pool of 30 volunteers, over 300 supporters and lots of followers on social media, received 100 investment pledges and made some really important links with other organisations in Exeter and community energy groups across the country.
But as yet no one has signed a heads of terms agreement, which is the first stage of the legal process and will enable us to launch our share offer. It’s proving slower than we expected.
Dawn: Why do you think this is the case? Do some people think its taking too long to deliver Solar PV 1?
Gill: We have achieved lots. We’ve completed our ‘start-up’ and are now progressing towards being ‘investment ready’.
We have a solid business case that delivers wide-ranging environmental, financial and social benefits to our local community. Roof owners pay nothing and all work is carried out by ECOE and our installers. We see it as a clear win-win and had no idea it would be so hard to get roof owners to sign-up – but the reality is that a lot are wary of leasing their roofs.
The various elements involved in community energy – governance, project design, site feasibility, financial modelling, community engagement, grid connections, leases with roof owners, Feed-In-Tariff accreditation and then installation – make it very complex.
Our directors bring a range of relevant expertise. We’ve all been on a steep learning curve working with the complexity of community energy. The majority of our work is carried out by two people working 2-3 days a week and we work on a very tight budget.
At the other end of the scale, Plymouth has a council-backed community energy scheme that launched a share offer within seven months of their incorporation. This was made possible by extensive funding and seconded council staff. I do wonder what we could have achieved with this kind of local authority support in Exeter, and it perhaps puts what we have achieved in a different light.
Dawn: So what’s the situation now regarding roofs?
Gill: We’ve had full technical surveys done at Shillingford Organics Farm, Wonford Community Centre, Willowbrook School and St James Church hall and will soon be doing the same at Exeter College Technology Centre. There’s still a lot of work to do before these can all be confirmed but the total potential capacity of these sites is over 200kWp – well over the minimum necessary to make our first project financially viable.
We’re also at the early stage of negotiations with a college and another community centre and we have conducted a basic desktop survey of over 100 other community roofs in Exeter. We’re now contacting those which are suitable to see if they are interested in being part of Solar PV 1.
Dawn: Wow! So does that mean you’re almost ready to launch a community share offer?
Gill: I’d love to say yes. We initially wanted the share offer to coincide with the Big Community Energy Weekend in May. I’m more wary now – we don’t want to underestimate the time it will take again. There is still a lot to do to confirm these roofs. Queries concerning leases take time to be resolved and there are lengthy procedures that need to be signed off by senior people who are often extremely busy.
We had hoped for it to happen in October. The minimum time for the share offer would be 6 weeks and that is taking us very close to Christmas. That’s not going to be a good time for people to make investment decisions. It may be more realistic for it to be next year.
Dawn: So what’s next?
Gill: We’re finalising our business plan and a draft of our share offer prospectus. These documents encapsulate all the work we have done to develop our business and it’s crucial they are ready when roofs are finalised so the share offer can be launched without any internal hold-ups.
We will be applying for the Enterprise Investment Scheme. This is when people can offset 30% of their investment against their tax.
We will be contacting as many community groups around Exeter and offer to come and speak to them about ECOE and Solar PV1. We want to reach out to the wider community and engage with as many people as possible.
And we have that long list of roof owners to contact, plus there are always loads more buildings to investigate.
We’re always looking for people who can help run ECOE – the more events we can attend and the more roof-owners we actively engage the sooner we will be able to launch our share offer and complete the installations.
