On Saturday 24th June, Bristol Energy Network welcomed guests from across the Community Energy sector for our annual conference, with the theme ‘Unleashing Community Energy’. In this blog, we’ll look back at some of the key themes discussed during the conference. To view the list of speakers, and session summaries, click here. Thanks again to … Continued
It was pretty perfect timing, really. There I was, taking notes in BEN’s September Open Meeting, when a BBC article popped up. “Switching to renewable energy could save trillions – study”, it said. Mind-boggling figure, trillions. How could you possibly make up that amount of money? And then I realised: through things like our Open … Continued
Community-owned energy generation accounts for less than 1% of the UK’s total renewable energy capacity. But the potential of this small and mighty sector to engage people in finding solutions simply isn’t captured in the data. Decarbonising, creating new green jobs, alleviating the cost of living, empowering communities to act on climate change: these are just … Continued
By Rachel Moffat, Coordinator of Bristol Energy Network As the next energy price cap rises on April 1st people will see their energy bills soar and, as energy is needed for our food, transport and production, all those costs of daily living will rise too. There are some things that we can do if we … Continued
Find out how Emilia and David got on at COP26 in this blog post by Mia Smith and David Tudgey.
A recording of this year’s Annual General Meeting can be found here. The AGM this year gave us a chance to talk about how we can develop, grow, and refine the Bristol Energy Network ‘Member Offer’, in fact the discussion suggested that perhaps it should be called a ‘Member Agreement’. The discussions raised points … Continued
Our next open meeting is on COP26. You might be wondering what is COP26? Here is some background. Guest blog by Judith Sluglett Every year, Covid permitting, large numbers of countries meet together to discuss climate change. This year the 26th meeting will take place in Glasgow in November and is called COP26 hosted by … Continued
We believe community energy will play a big role in decarbonising Bristol. We have written 10 questions for the Bristol City Council and West of England Combined Authority mayoral candidates to make sure these issues are being discussed. It’s worked! After contacting the offices of all candidates, we’ve had full replies from Jerome Thomas (WECA, … Continued
Back in January a crowdfunder was started across Bristol, raising money to support people effected by Covid-19 in paying their fuel bills. A total of £19,740 was raised and split equally between five community centres to cover the whole of the Bristol area. Baggator, an organisation helping local people have a voice, was nominated to … Continued
Blog by Jazz Chandler What we do next could change everything “We have a chance to reset the clock and build back better than before” asserts the elegantly named campaign, Build Back Better. With a name so globally appealing, it’s seen traditionally adversarial organisations suddenly using the same language- who’d have thought the Government’s latest … Continued