Lets help the wonderful Dracaena Centre do more for our community by putting solar panels on their roof and keeping their electricity local.
by Louise Allen in Falmouth, England, United Kingdom
4th place in the M&S Energy Fund 2018 - Most raised
5th place in the M&S Energy Fund 2018 - Most supporters
Well we have been overwhelmed by the support in the last few days. Thank you so much to everyone who has pledged. So Falmouth and Penryn, shall we see if we can fund some more panels? Each panel costs about £250 and the less we borrow, the more we can invest in helping the Dracaena Centre and action to reduce fuel poverty.
Lets do it!
Fal Energy Partnership (FEP) is a community energy company and we really want to help the fabulous Dracaena Centre here in the heart of Falmouth. They do so many great things in our community and we want to help them do more by saving them money on their electricity bill.
We want to put solar panels on their roof, so that they can buy their electricity from us instead of one of the big suppliers and we will charge them less. They can then spend the money they save directly on things that benefit all the lovely people who use the centre.
The Dracaena Centre is a charity and its aim is to create a healthy, happy, mutually supportive community here in Falmouth. They offer all sorts of services from sports clubs, a cafe, a Toy Library, Special Olympics, help and advice, activities for young people and not so young people and it is used by over 120 people per day! If you get the chance to see our film, you can see just what a wonderful place it is. You can find out more about them here.
Anne, a local resident who uses the centre every week, said "I use the centre because of the camaraderie, the exercise and the fun. For some people here it is the only time they talk to another person all week. It's a very special place."
FEP will be able to claim a small feed-in-tariff (FIT) for generating renewable electricity and exporting the surplus back into the Grid. Our plan is to reinvest this money in the local community by developing more renewable energy projects like this one; it would be #ShopLocal for electricity. We think this is really important because currently 98% of the £1billion we spend each year on energy in Cornwall goes straight out of the county.
Our project will cost about £35,000 and because the feed-in-tariff is so low, the project will only work if we can raise some money from the generous people in our community and hopefully win £5000 from M&S in addition. The rest of the money we will borrow from the Cornwall Low Carbon Fund.
If you pledge you will be eligible to become a member of FEP and we would love you to be involved. We currently have over 50 members and we operate on a volunteer led, non-profit, one member-one vote basis. You can find out more about FEP here. Our business plan tells you more about us and what we want to do. You can read that here.
Thank you so much for visiting our page and if you pledge - thank you even more. Together we can help the Dracaena Centre provide more local people with the support, activities and services they need - and we can know that we have all truly helped to create a healthy, happy, caring and supportive community.
This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.