Re-Generative Abney

Background

The UK Government has pledged to more than halve our carbon emissions by 2030 and to get to net zero by 2050. The strategy for achieving this includes electrifying our home heating and vehicles. So we’ll need more electricity.

Last year, HVCA’s Energy Group conducted a study of  Hope Valley Energy and Renewables. We set ourselves 3 simple questions.

1 How much electricity will we need in Hope Valley?

2 What mix of renewables would meet this demand?

3 What do residents and visitors think about large-scale renewables in the Peak?

We tested different scenarios and calculated that by 2050 in Hope Valley domestic demand will rise from 23 to 60 GWh. That means we will need two to three times as much electricity.

Crucially, carbon emissions and energy costs are much less under the Best Case Scenario, which involves retrofitting our homes to a much higher standard of energy efficiency and moving to non-fossil fuel vehicles. That’s what we should be aiming for. A sensible mix of wind and solar could generate this amount of electricity. Unfortunately, hydro can only play a minor role since the potential across the whole of the Peak is modest.

Public opinion

To gauge public opinion, we conducted a survey in January this year; 675 people responded.  See Our Survey Results.

In summary, only a third of people think their home is well insulated. Two-thirds of those whose homes need retrofitting would seriously consider insulating their homes properly If a grant covered half the cost. On generation, our main finding is that 61% of all respondents are prepared to consider large-scale renewables in the Peak Park and a quarter might consider them. Roof solar is liked by nearly all respondents and two-thirds are in favour of small wind turbines and ground-based or floating solar arrays.

Barriers

What are the barriers to this happening? Currently, there is little or no funding for retrofit. In September the Government announced its Help to Heat strategy that will provide £1.5billion to improve energy efficiency, but this will only benefit around 130,000 low-income households. See Affordable Warmth. This is only 1% of the 15 million homes that need retrofitting.

Large scale renewables are prohibited in national parks. The electricity grid will need reinforcing to cope with the increase in renewable generation. And we need the Local Electricity Bill to become law to make community power viable, for example by allowing community benefit societies to act as local suppliers.

Start small, think big

The big idea is to make Abney a case study that could be a model for the rest of Hope Valley and the whole of the Peak District.  We want to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of homes in Abney and make Abney self-sufficient in electricity.

Aims

• improve home energy efficiency in homes in Abney
• increase the amount of renewable electricity generated and stored locally
• provide a model for retrofitting homes and providing renewable energy in Hope Valley.

Programme

We, that is Ed Westgate, Chair of the Parish Meeting, Mark Everard, Trustee of the Village Hall, and Steve Platt and Mandy Holden of HVCA, have formed a Steering Group.  We are working together on energy efficiency and renewables that could transform residents’ carbon emissions and reduce energy costs.  And by working together communally, rather than individually, we hope not only to achieve economies of scale, but also to encourage and support each other.

In outline, we intend to commission energy assessments and produce a plan for every home. This would identify quick wins you could do straight-away and major retrofit that would need funding. We will calculate energy demand and commission a feasibility study of wind and solar. We will educate ourselves, identify local installers, make plans and be ready to roll as soon as the government introduces a national retrofit programme.

All this will need dialogue with the National Park Authorities and the Distribution Network Operators. 

First meeting 

Next steps