Founded by Individuals, Grown by Community.
Who Are Derbyshire Dales Community Energy?
Derbyshire Dales Community Energy, more informally known as DDCE, was founded by a group of passionate individuals. These founding people were driven by a desire to take action against climate change through developing community energy. We now support community energy projects across Derbyshire, all backed by our brilliant board.
As a Community Benefit Society we welcome anyone to join us in reaching our aims and helping combat climate change. You can find out more about how to join on our membership page.
Our History
In response to Derbyshire Dales District Council declaring a climate emergency an initial group got together to look at how we could harness the potential of our communities to power a sustainable future.
In January 2021 we commissioned a report “Stepping Stones” which explores the important role of energy in transitioning to vibrant, exciting, sustainable futures. It looks beyond a straight swap of fossil fuels for renewables and focus on the local benefits and wider advantages to be gained through energy democracy.
In March 2021 we worked with Matlock Town Council to bid for Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) funds for a feasibility study to identify two suitable sites for energy generation within Matlock. We were awarded a grant of £40k to carry out this work and identified two viable sites for building mounted solar PV arrays: a 70kW scheme at Twigg Stores and a 150kW scheme at Highfields Upper School.
A Big Leap Forward
To bid for RCEF Phase 2 development funds we had to become a formally constituted body: in January 2022 we became a Community Benefit Society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
In March 2022 we were awarded a phase 2 grant from the Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF), through the Midlands Net Zero Hub.
This grant was to support the installation of community energy systems in Matlock and ensure a viable community energy organisation that will be able to continue with the development of further schemes within Matlock and neighbouring communities. We appointed Sharenergy to carry out this work on our behalf. They are responsible for: Technical assessment, Regulatory work, Procurement of installer, Business planning, Community engagement, Legal and power purchase agreements, Community share offer.
This detailed development work showed that we would need to develop community energy sites with at least 1 MWp of installed capacity to make our community energy group financially viable and be in a position to launch a community share offer. This entailed identifying more sites than the original two in our Phase 1 project. The additional work meant that we would not be able to complete the work and go out for a community share offer before the end of the grant funding in February 2023.
The Next Step
In September 2022 we agreed that we would partner with Big Solar Co-op. They will raise finance, install the solar panels and manage them for the lifetime of the solar panels.
Our partnership the Big Solar Co-op also enables us to continue to work with new sites in Derbyshire beyond the end of the RCEF funding.