Community Energy Information Sessions Forth Valley
As well as recruiting a whole new team to join the FEL community which will focus on energy efficiency and renewable technologies, we are delighted to be hosting two more Community Energy Sessions to follow up from our successful Falkirk event held last November. The first will be in Callander on the 13th of March and the second in Alloa on the 18th of March. Over the past year, we in the Climate hub have been developing good relationships with the teams at Business Energy Scotland, Local Energy Scotland and Home Energy Scotland, all of whom will be there to talk about ways for communities and SMEs to develop and implement energy schemes to address issues of energy resilience, efficiency and potentially benefit communities with long term funding streams. There will also be a few different community organisations at different stages of their community energy journey available to talk about their learnings, insights and give a valuable helping hand. Gemma from the CARES team at Local Energy Scotland will be talking about the additional funds and extension of the development grant for community renewables and how communities can be supported.
We will also be discussing the Scottish Government’s consultation on Community Benefit which is out now and will be closing on the 11th of April. This consultation will provide guidance for offshore energy development and how these large-scale projects will feed back into communities in Scotland. This is phase one of the benefits consultation, with Onshore Energy also being consulted on soon. We believe it’s key for communities to take part and inform so that these developments are responsible to contribute to communities for a just and fair transition.
Green Champions Training with Business Energy Scotland
With so many small businesses and community organisations struggling to keep up with the rising bills and a need to understand better how to be more energy efficient in the workplace, we at FEL have developed further our relationship with Business Energy Scotland to deliver this training to our Forth Valley groups. We were so delighted that they offered this training specifically for our communities and offer accreditation for the course which will help those who attend to have a better understanding of how to be more resource efficient, learn from other examples of best practice and get access to useful tools and resources.
Anyone can join the programme which consists of a two-hour live session at lunchtime on Tuesday 25 March where we’ll be learning together as a community. Afterwards, there are a few online modules to be completed at your own pace. It’s a really great opportunity to meet other groups and learn what you can do to save money and make a difference.
Renewable Energy at Home
Following on from our successful Home Energy Scotland energy efficiency workshop held in Kippen last November, we are offering a workshop to talk about renewables for your home. You can find out all about grants available, how to assess the right technology for you and how to go about the process. It will be held in Kippen on Thursday the 10th of April at 7pm.
We do hope to see you at one of the events or, as always, feel free to contact us for further information on our energy projects at climate@felscotland.org.
