Ridge Clean Energy supports solar panel project for Wilbrahams’ Memorial Hall

Home » Ridge Clean Energy supports solar panel project for Wilbrahams’ Memorial Hall Published: August 28, 2024 This Article was Written by: Daniela Jenkins - Ridge Clean Energy

Ridge Clean Energy (RCE) is once again delighted to support local community efforts and provide funding to enable Wilbrahams’ Memorial Hall solar panel project to go ahead in the village of Great Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire.

The Wilbrahams’ Memorial Hall Committee have secured funding to progress this project and install 60 solar panels on the Memorial Hall roof with storage batteries inside. The installation will be completed by Greenscape in August 2024 and is supported by funding from Cambridgeshire Priorities Capital Fund, Wadlow Wind Farm Community Fund, Great Wilbraham Parish Council, the Drapers’ Company and RCE.

Daniela Jenkins, Community Partnerships Manager at RCE, said the following:

‘This is a very exciting project for the local community and brings the prospect of generating green electricity and substantially reducing the hall’s electricity bill by using the batteries and exporting surplus energy to the national grid.

RCE is proud to support this project. It is a tangible example of how we work with the local community to support carbon reduction and enable locally produced renewable energy.’

Daniela continued: ‘This project aligns with RCE’s aim of helping communities on their way to achieve net zero carbon. We know that a real and valuable transition to clean energy can only come about with the support and consideration of the communities it affects. We also believe that building trust with local communities must be central to any energy transition policy.’

Commenting on the project, Emma Adams, Chair of Wilbrahams’ Memorial Hall, said:

‘We were delighted to secure 100% grant funding for our project to install 60 solar panels and batteries on our community hall. With this installation we will be “operationally net zero” – generating as much electricity through the year as we will use. The reduced electrical bills will allow us to concentrate more of our income on community provision. Throughout the project we have been supported by Ridge Clean Energy’s Community Partnership Manager, both with practical / grant advice and with a funding package that contributed to the total. We are extremely grateful for their support.’

RCE has worked with the local community and supported local initiatives since 2021 when work began to create a renewable energy park (REP) in the area. RCE’s Six Oaks REP was approved by East Cambridgeshire District Council in December 2023 and looks forward to supplying renewable energy to the area in the coming years.  RCE designs and builds its REPs in a collaborative way, as good neighbours, which creates continuing local benefits to communities and clean energy benefits to the whole of the UK. Each REP is assigned a Community Partnership Coordinator over the lifetime of a project, who builds a relationship with key people in the area to identify and develop initiatives and ideas that will support the community’s path to Net Zero.