Dear Lord Callanan
I urge you most urgently to support these two amendments to the energy bill 237 and 238. I have been working in the community energy field for a long time and we need to reduce the market barriers for community groups and give them more certainty. From my experience they are key to achieving zero carbon as they not only keep the financial benefits of energy schemes’ local, they also encourage people to reduce their carbon impact. We have a lot to do to keep global warming below catastrophic levels.
Why have community energy schemes recently ground to a halt?
I believe this is largely due to current energy market and licensing rules. The recent Government interventions have been attempted but have failed to reverse the slump in new projects. The “Smart Export Guarantee”, which places a requirement on larger existing electricity suppliers to purchase power from small schemes, has no guaranteed purchase price or length of contract, making community investment almost impossible.
What should be done?
Support the amendments to the Energy Bill numbers 237 and 238.
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A Community Electricity Export Guarantee: a right for sites that generate low carbon electricity with a capacity below 5 megawatts to export their electricity to an existing electricity supplier on fair terms (Amendment Number 237).
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A Community Electricity Supplier Services Scheme: a requirement on existing larger suppliers to work with community schemes to sell the power they generate to local customers. Existing suppliers can charge a fee for doing this, but that fee must be reasonable (Amendment Number 238).
Here at Hockerton Housing Project we have helped many community groups in the past and if you would like to see some of these you would be most welcome.
Please see Sustainable Hockerton and its community wind turbine.
Best wishes
Simon
Mr S Tilley, CEng MEng MIMechE
Director, Hockerton Housing Project Trading Ltd
Just to update you on what is happening or not happening at
Hockerton at the moment! Our tours are cancelled now until the beginning
of June(we hope). We have added in an extra date on Saturday July 4th
which is obviously a provisional date.
These can be all booked via our website with this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sustainable-living-tickets-15018178777?ref=estw
New live offers
We know that nothing is quite like visiting Hockerton for
yourself and experiencing the site and the homes. We have been thinking for some time of
alternative ways people can ‘visit’ so that more people can enjoy the
experience and learn from the innovation that is Hockerton HP. The recent challenge of Covid 19 has
clarified our thinking on this but we hope it is something that many schools
and students can use in their future learning as well.
We are offering a live tour of the project for groups followed and if they wish, with a zoom session. If you are interested contact us via email at contact@hockertonhousingproject.org.uk .
Resources for Schools and Universities
For
schools or universities unable to make a visit or travel to Hockerton Housing
Project, we are now offering a new Remote Educational Package. This package
includes:
- A Skype tour with a HHP resident, covering areas
within Wi-Fi range i.e. resident homes and solar panels.
- A DVD or USB stick with video explanations
covering of all of the site’s design features and footage from the BBC’s
‘Inside Out’ programme. Please see our example Wind Energy summary video below.
- A package of infographics covering HHP’s design
features and further processes.
- Worksheets aimed at GCSE students to be
completed whilst watching the explanation videos.
The areas of GCSE and A level syllabus coverage is
detailed in the Education brochure. https://www.hockertonhousingproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Hockerton-Housing-Project-Education-Brochure.pdf
Resources for students and children at home
We are also encouraging students who are interested in
sustainability in any way to access our videos these can be found on the
website. For primary aged children years 5 and 6 we would suggest they
follow the link https://hockertonhousingproject.org.uk/sustainable-living/co-housing/
and look at The Green Pioneers Open University video. If anyone wanted to
then have a zoom meeting to talk to us about climate change or what it is like
to live here we could set that up afterwards. They would need to express
their interest in this by following this link: mailto:contact@hockertonhousingproject.org.uk.
Hockerton Housing Project’s passive solar eco house sold, there is a new house for sale near by, details here. (WE HOLD A WAITING LIST IF THIS IS SOMETHING YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN IN THE FUTURE. Currently HOUSE FOR SALE IN HHP, FIND OUT MORE. (This in 2024)) It is one of the five private homes on this sustainable co-housing development. It comes with shared access and use of renewable energy systems, rainwater harvesting, lakes, woodland and 6 acres of land, with a further 8.5 acres on an agricultural lease.
£460,000
Kitchen of house for sale at Hockerton Housing Project
Click here for further information about the house for sale.
Residents benefit from very low bills, onsite renewable energy systems and rainwater harvesting, and access and use of 14.5 acres. The homes and their gardens are private, with all households sharing in the management of the surrounding land and facilities, and the onsite business that provides an income for residents through its range of services relating to sustainability.
Location
The development is in the Nottinghamshire village of Hockerton, 1.5 miles from the market town of Southwell and 7 miles from Newark, with its 75 minute train link to London. The village has a pub and an active community spirit. Schools include the Lowes Wong Infant and Junior School and the excellent Minster School. Southwell is a bustling historic town with a useful range of shops, two weekly markets, and regular festivals throughout the year.
This is a private sale, please contact us if you would like to be put in touch with the sellers.
You can view the EPC here, but please note the method behind it cannot cope with the property’s lack of heating – we have the past 20 years records to prove it!
Household energy use is falling but no-one’s really sure why.
We hope that it’s a long term trend supporting our ambition to make the way we live more sustainably.
Be part of our community!
Sustainable Hockerton (SHOCK), a group of residents from the village of Hockerton, are celebrating the planning approval for the installation of a 225kW wind turbine within parish.
Background Information
Wind turbine
Since July 2006 residents of the parish of Hockerton have been meeting regularly to discuss becoming a zero carbon village.
The key objective of SHOCK is to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide production. A key first step was to develop a proposal to erect a community owned wind turbine, to generate clean electricity and use any profits to promote other objectives.
Location
Care was taken to ensure that any area being considered was at least 500m from any property (well in excess of Government guidelines). A site about 1km from the next nearest village and sympathetically sited away from the neighbouring parish boundary was agreed as the location for the wind turbine.
Local support
A vote was conducted in February 2007 with about a quarter of the village residents responding of which 28 supported the idea and four were against. The majority of those in favour were also interested in financially investing in the wind turbine. It was therefore agreed to develop the proposal further towards a full planning application.
Power Generation
The objective of the wind turbine is to generate the equivalent amount of clean electricity that the homes use in the Hockerton parish.
