Bishop’s Castle heat and wind project gets some wind in its sails

Shropshire and Telford Community Energy has been awarded a £100,000 Community Energy Fund grant by the Midlands Net Zero Hub.

The funds will be used to progress the Bishop’s Castle wind turbine-powered Community Heat project, including preparing a planning application for the wind turbine and further studies relating to the heat network.

The work will include Ecology and Technical studies, and obtaining ’expressions of interest’ from the town’s householders, organisations and businesses – including the Community College and SpArC Leisure Centre.  The heat network would provide heating and hot water to homes and businesses enabling them to take out old inefficient oil / LPG boilers and fuel tanks.

Shropshire and Telford Community Energy is working with its partners Light Foot Enterprises, an environmental charity based in Bishop’s Castle, and Sharenergy, the community energy specialists based in Shrewsbury.

Robert Saunders, Chair, STCE, said:

“We are very grateful to the Community Energy Fund for its grant.  We have been working on this project for several years and have already gained the support of many local people, the Town Council and former MP Philip Dunne.”

The project will be managed by Dave Green of Sharenergy who said:

“This is a fantastic step forward for this exciting ground-breaking project which has gathered substantial local support.  We are very pleased to have unanimous support from the Town Council.”  

The project featured last November on Channel 4’s ‘The Great Climate Fight’.  Since the programme aired Shropshire Council has given the go ahead to submit a planning application for the wind turbine. It is hoped the planning application can be submitted later this year on completion of the studies.

Mike Watkins, Light Foot’s local co-ordinator, said: “There’s a mountain of detailed work to be done on this complex project which requires the involvement of a wide range of experts. The work is on-going and our next step will then be to present it to the Bishop’s Castle community before we submit a planning application for the wind turbine.”