As you may be aware, the closing date for our share offer is tomorrow (Sunday 16 July). We had extended it by a few days while we were waiting for some of the permissions we need and it seems to have come round quickly!

We’ve had some good news this week in relation to permissions:
✅ Prior approval from the local planning authority
✅ Grid connection offer from Electricity North West, so we can export up to 200kW from the site if it’s not needed by the school

We’re in dialogue with the Department for Education about the lease of the roof airspace above the school, alongside the school and both parties’ solicitors.

We’ve raised £190,100 so far – this is more than we’ve ever raised in a single share offer! Thanks to everyone who has invested.

If we can get to £225,000, we can use some GMCR reserves and the new shares to install solar panels on two buildings at the school plus a further 75kW on a third roof area. There is room for more on that roof, so if we beat that target, even better!

We’ll keep you updated on how things go but if you are planning to invest and haven’t done so yet, now is the time!

We’ve reached a crucial time for our project to install a solar array at Wellington School.  We continue to wait for the planning permission, grid connection consent and Department for Education (DfE) approval.  We know the relevant authorities are looking at our applications, but we haven’t had their formal responses yet.

As you know, we extended the share offer period until Sunday 16 July to collect more investment while we wait for those permissions to come through.  We spent the weekend at the Sustainability Show where it was a pleasure to talk to like minded people about the project.  We had lots of volunteers helping out on the day and making further offers to support us – thank you!

We’ve raised £163,700 so far and have 6 days to go… Let’s keep spreading the word so we can get as many panels on the school roof as we can! All the details of the share offer together with the online application form can be found on our Invest page.

Thanks so much for your support!

It’s been a busy week! We’ve been to 8 events spreading the word about our project to install solar panels at Wellington School since our update last Monday.  

We’re proud of GMCR and love telling people about the benefits solar panels will bring to Wellington School and the environment.  We also love to quote achievements from our existing sites, such as how many cups of tea we could have made with the energy generated so far (70 million!) and how much our partners have saved on their bills (£70,000).  And while we hope people will invest to help the community, mentioning the 5% share interest and capital repayment over 10 years emphasises that we’re seeking investment rather than donations.

Highlights of our week included meeting the Wellington School eco-committee, and the photo from that day was published in the Manchester Evening News and in Altrincham Today.  Ali was on BBC Radio Manchester (from 22 minutes), Kate was on That’s Manchester TV, and we’ve been to the school open day (pictured below) and to Timperley Sports Club.

We’ve raised £115,700 so far, so close to our Minimum target of £120,000!  Can you help us get there? Find out how on our Invest page.

If we do make our minimum target, we won’t be stopping there.  If we can make it to £175,000, we’ll be able to cover two out of the three roof areas at the school which are suitable for solar panels.  So that’s the next milestone on our way to the big target of £350,000.

Next weekend you’ll find us at Altrincham Festival.  If anyone wants to come along and help out at our stall, you’d be most welcome as we’ll be there on both Saturday and Sunday from 11am to around 4pm.  Please contact us on info@gmcr.org.uk if you can join us.

As you may know, we’re on a mission to raise £350,000 in community investment to fund the installation of solar panels at Wellington School in Timperley.  This will save the school money on their electricity bills, meaning they’ll have more to spend on education, as well as reducing their carbon footprint. 

The share offer is open to individuals and businesses and the minimum investment is £100.  We’re planning to pay annual share interest at 5% from 2025 and repay capital in instalments over 10 years.  Please note that these projections are subject to the performance of the Society and capital is at risk.

We’ve been out and about promoting the share offer at a range of events including Didsbury Festival, the Northern Sustainability Summit (pictured below), and the MMU Sustainability Festival, as well as delivering leaflets in the Wellington School neighbourhood.

Thanks so much to everyone who has invested with us!  Your support is much appreciated.  We’ve raised £48,400 so far, so we’re making good progress towards the Minimum target but still have a long way to go before we reach £350,000!

However, we have plenty more community engagement lined up over the next couple of weeks.  We’re meeting the school’s eco-committee today and talking about our project at the school’s upcoming open day, at Timperley Sports Club and at Altrincham Festival.

It’s our most ambitious share offer yet so we’d be really grateful for your help to get the message out to anyone else who might be interested in investing. You can share our posts on social media (on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) and download the share offer from our Invest page.

To mark World Environment Day on 5 June, GMCR has launched a share offer to fund the largest community-owned solar array in Greater Manchester.

The solar array at Wellington School in Timperley will cover the school roofs with 946 solar panels and generate enough electricity to make over 16 million cups of tea a year [2].  This will help the school save money on their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint.

Greater Manchester Community Renewables (GMCR) was set up in 2015 and has over 230 members who have funded solar arrays at eight primary schools in Salford and Bury, and a community centre in Trafford.  The solar panels have so far generated enough electricity to charge over 65 million smartphones, saved over £70,000 on their energy bills and prevented 300 tonnes of carbon emissions from polluting power stations. [3] 

Kate Eldridge, Director of GMCR said:

“Today, we’re launching our most ambitious share offer yet to raise £350,000 to fund a solar array at Wellington School.  

“Our project has shown that when people come together we can make a real difference to the environment and the local community.  

“With your help another school will soon be able to benefit from clean, cheap renewable energy.  

“By investing as little as £100, you can support the transition to a sustainable future ” 

The community share offer is open to individuals, businesses and organisations.  Anyone who buys shares will be eligible for share interest of up to 5% and GMCR aims to repay the shares over the next ten years.  Profits are donated to a community fund to support carbon reduction, energy efficiency and environmental education.  The share offer is open until 3 July 2023.  Those interested in investing should read the Share Offer fully and take appropriate financial advice.

For more information visit www.gmcr.org.uk/invest

ENDS

Notes to the editor

1. Greater Manchester Community Renewables Limited (GMCR) is a community benefit society, set up and run by volunteers to install community-owned renewable energy across Greater Manchester.

2. 16 million cups of tea is calculated based on estimated generation of 300,000kWh, and using an ‘average kettle’ of 2200 Watts and 1.7L which takes around 4 minutes to boil.

3. GMCR’s solar arrays have generated 1.3 million kWh of clean electricity to date.  65 million smartphones is calculated using a smartphone battery of 4000mAh using 0.02kWh to fully charge.

CO2 savings are calculated based on UK grid intensity for generation and transmission.

4. Installing a 383 kWp solar array at Wellington School will more than double the size of our project.  In the first full year of operation, we expect that our ten Sites will:

• generate 575,000 kWh of clean, green electricity
• save approximately 80 tonnes of carbon dioxide

Over the next 20 years, we expect to deliver:

• total energy bill savings of £340,000
• a Community Fund of £400,000.

We have lots to update you on since our last newsletter. While our community-owned solar panels have not been at their most productive during the Winter, our volunteers have been busy!

Preparing a new share offer
As you may know, our engagement with potential new site partners paused during the pandemic as schools were incredibly busy with managing the day to day impacts of Covid.

However, since then, the sharp increase in electricity prices has prompted a number of schools to contact GMCR to explore how we could support them to reduce their energy bills and carbon footprint with solar panels.  Conversations have been held with numerous educational and community centres.  We’ve also built a positive dialogue with a Solar for GM Faiths project, who we hope to work with in the coming years.

In the meantime, one large secondary school has agreed in principle to partner with us now and so we are preparing for a new share offer this summer.  This is a particularly exciting project because:

• Installing the maximum number of panels at this site will more than double our solar capacity; and
• Raising the funds for this will result in our biggest share offer ever – almost the same as our first three share offers combined!

Please let us know if you’d be interested in investing in our new share offer by completing our 2023 pre-share offer survey.

Solar performance of existing sites
In the period January to March 2023, our nine solar arrays generated 36,272 kWh of electricity, enough to make 2 million cups of tea and save over 8 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Our site partners used 31,797 kWh (88% of generation) and collectively saved £6,155 on their electricity bills this quarter.

GMCR Energy Savers
In the Winter months, our partner in the GMCR Energy Savers project, the Groundwork Green Doctors, have been supporting households in Salford and Trafford with energy saving advice.  We also have some funding from Electricity North West for energy audits at our sites to enable them to understand their energy use and ways to save energy.  We have now selected a partner for this work and will be offering the audits to our site partners shortly.

Warm Homes campaign
GMCR is supporting Friends of the Earth’s United for Warm Homes campaign.  The campaign is calling for a nationwide retrofit programme, a shift from fossil fuels to renewables, and urgent financial support for people struggling with their energy bills.  

If you’d like to show your support for the campaign, you can sign a petition here.  If your community group / church / business would like to show support for the campaign, please contact Kate on info@gmcr.org.uk

Spreading the word
We continue to spread the word about our project.  Since we last wrote to you we attended the Stockport Fair Trade Fair and spoke to the Business Green Scene group at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Bury Climate Action about our project.  

We would be most grateful if you could help us promote our new share offer by asking friends and family to subscribe to our newsletter or to follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for your support!