Powering Down: new Home & Community Energy Workshop
We delivered an introduction to home & community energy in Great Longstone Village Hall. Here’s a review of the evening from one local resident.
DDCE, working with the local Neighbourhood Plan team in Great Longstone, delivered a Home & Community Energy Workshop on the evening of 21st January. Approximately 35 residents braved the rain to attend the event at the Village Hall. They listened to fascinating talks from local homeowners, including Tim, Ally and Jeff from the Longstones, as well as Rob from Curbar, who shared their experiences of improving their homes’ heating and energy performance through technologies such as solar panels, batteries and air source heat pumps. Their honesty in sharing both successes and challenges was hugely appreciated, and I certainly came away with plenty of insight into what to prioritise and what to avoid.
We then heard from Rob at Marches Energy Agency, who shared insights into the services the charity offers homeowners - including diagnosing issues and proposing improvements through tools such as thermal imaging to identify draughts and insulation problems. A key takeaway from Rob’s talk was that you don’t need to aim for perfection when retrofitting or invest in every possible measure—making even a few targeted changes can have a significant impact. He also stressed the importance of recognising that every home is unique, regardless of age, and that it’s essential to spend time assessing which solutions are right for your specific property.
Finally, Imran from Plugyy, an energy consultancy that helps design and implement renewable community energy schemes, shared insights into the types of projects they deliver. The potential of these schemes seems really exciting, and hopefully upcoming legislative changes will make them more achievable for communities to implement.
Thank you to DDCE and the Climate Mitigation & Renewable Energy workstream within the Longstone Area Neighbourhood Plan for organising such an informative evening.