Severn Wye Energy Agency

Energy Neighbourhoods

Background

Climate change and CO₂ emissions cause concern amongst many residents in the UK, resulting in increased levels of interest in saving energy. Although the intention is good, many householders find it difficult to stay committed to energy reduction activities as it is often hard to see the results in the short term.

A previous feasibility study by SWEA, Parish Power, showed that householders remained far more committed and enthused when they worked as a team and had the support and guidance of experts and other members of their community.

A project in Flanders, Belgium, 'Klimaatwijken', introduced the concept of the 'climate challenge'. The introduction of a reward coupled with the competitive aspect of this initiative made it a great success, and it now provides a template upon which to base Energy Neighbourhoods.

The project focused on communities working together, supported by host organisations such as Parish Councils, Housing providers and Businesses.

In addition to energy saving the project has focused on improving communication channels between communities and their host organisation. This will be through the forthcoming series of local climate debates, where open and interesting discussion on the topic of Climate Change will be encouraged.

Aims

The aim of the Energy Neighbourhood Project is to inspire and encourage communities to achieve energy savings through taking specific action to reduce energy consumption through changes in behaviour alone.

The experiences and knowledge gained through the implementation of this project will be shared throughout the UK and Europe, enabling more effective working towards sustainable energy in the future.

Activities

The project has been delivered through the setting up of Energy Neighbourhoods, each with between 8 - 20 participating households. Each neighbourhood appointed an Energy Master. This individual was trained in energy saving and provided day to day support and advice for the community. The Energy Master had access to an energy saving toolkit to assist households in measuring their savings and took responsibility for the collection of energy consumption data throughout the project.

The energy saving calculation tool has been specifically designed for this project and takes into account seasonal differences in temperature, heating requirements and cooking methods and standardises electricity and gas to allow a combined energy saving to be calculated. All households needed to make their previous years energy bills available in order for a baseline consumption level to be defined. Participants energy consumption was entered onto the website each month so each neighbourhood was able to see how they and the other communities progressed.

The Challenge

The Energy Neighbourhoods had 6 months to save as much energy as possible through changes in behaviour.

Up for grabs was a trip for five members of the winning group to go to the international award ceremony in Brussels.

The Strategy

• During the project the participants were sent weekly tips and activities in order to help them save as much energy as possible.
• Each household had the opportunity to use an electricity monitor at the start of the project to help identify the key energy guzzlers in their home.
• Various energy saving gadgets and incentives were raffled off during the competition
• Each neighbourhood had a launch party and an interim get together, to enable them to get to know other members of the community and swap helpful hints and tips.

The Neighbourhoods

8 Neighbourhoods finished the competition

• Wotton Energy Watch
• Stroud District folk
• South Gloucestershire
• Cirencester Town Council
• Hucclecote
• Forest folk
• Cam Parish Council
• Stroud Town Council

...And six months later

The Award Ceremoney

To celebrate everyone's achievements an award ceremony was held at Randwick Village hall. The aim of the day was:

• to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken part
• to provide information to those who may want to take energy saving further with renewable energy
• to be a fun day for all.

A full gallery of all the pictures can be found here

Although the project has focused in depth on the participating households, we now hope that the promotion and publicity of the project will engage with the wider community on energy saving issues. The creation of these exemplar neighbourhoods will hopefully serve as inspiration and templates for future activities within the districts.

Results

The Award

In March 2010 The European Energy Neighbourhood Project received the winning prize for the European Commissions' ManagEnergy Local Energy Action Award for being the best local energy initiative. There were 58 case studies submitted to ManagEnergy in 2010 for assessment and as the winning initiative, the Energy Neighbourhood project will be used by the European Commission as a reference for European local authorities as an example of Best Practice.

• Severn Wye Energy Agency - Press Release
• ManagEnergy - Press Release

Funding

Coordinator

Karen Robinson - Project Worker

	karen
	01452 835080

Links

Carbon Watchers

Energy Neighbourhoods Website

50% of the project costs have been funded by the European Commission through the Intelligent Energy Europe grant fund. The other 50% will be made up from the development of local partnerships

Supported by:

Partners

There are 10 partner organisations from 9 European countries participating in the Energy Neighbourhoods project:

Every country will also develop further partnerships with Municipalities, Town or Parish Councils, social housing providers, businesses and other host organisations to support the activities of the project.

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Severn Wye Energy Agency Ltd, Unit 15 Highnam Business Centre, Highnam, Gloucester, GL2 8DN
Telephone 01452 835060 • Fax 01452 526208