The government-owned clean energy company Great British Energy has awarded mayoral authorities a total of £10 million in grant funding towards clean energy for community services.
The government-owned clean energy company Great British Energy has awarded mayoral authorities a total of £10 million in grant funding towards clean energy for community services.
According to the government, the schemes funded by GB Energy could lead to a total of about £35 million in savings on energy bills.
The grants will see rooftop solar PV installed on buildings such as libraries and care homes across the UK, with leisure centres and fire stations in Greater Lincolnshire and primary schools and sports centres (among others) in West Yorkshire also using the funding to install battery energy storage.
In Greater Manchester the grants will also provide EV chargers at community centres as well as solar PV and battery storage.
The cash injections comes after GB Energy pledged £200 million to support installation of solar PV on schools and NHS hospitals, which has so far seen arrays installed on 11 schools.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “Our plans mean more money can be spent on the services that make working people better off and help strengthen the ties that bind us in our communities.”
After some back and forth on the function that GB Energy would serve as a government-funded entity, there has been a general consensus that it is best placed to invest in community energy and the public sector.
Existing schemes such as Contracts for Difference (CfD) are already effectively providing governmental support for larger scale solar projects.
The grants awarded by GB Energy range in value between £1 milling and £4.5 million. The full list of awarded authorities is available on the UK government website.
Rob Gilbert, director of supply chain at GB Energy, who recently spoke at Solar Media’s Clean Power 2030 Summit, said “from an economical standpoint, it makes a huge amount of sense in terms of our broader mission to help deploy clean power in aid of local communities and local power projects into the supply chain, so that we create the jobs, skills and career opportunities, but also the industrial base for the future.”
The Great British Energy Bill, which formally establishes the state-owned energy company, passed through Parliament in early May of this year. Dan McGrail was recently made permanent CEO of the energy company, having lead it as interim CEO for about four months.
During that time, as well as the school solar funding, GB Energy has provided financial backing for offshore wind supply chains and an amendment to the Great British Energy Bill has been made banning the use of solar products with forced labour in their supply chains from GB Energy projects.
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