2020 – what’s on the cards for community energy?
As we enter a new year and a new decade, what’s on the horizon for community energy?
Blog
A just energy transition – BEN conference 2019
BEN Director Robert Smart reports from our Energy Transition Conference 2019. Over 140 people came to Bristol Energy Network’s 2019 conference, which was held on a bright autumn afternoon at City Hall. Gathered together was a rich and diverse representation from Bristol’s civic community and representatives from local, regional and national organisations to discuss a … Continued
Bristol Energy Network joins the World-Wide Climate Change Youth Strike, September 2019
On a beautiful Autumnal September day around 10,000 people gathered on Bristol’s College Green and marched on the streets in response to the call to protest to demand an acceleration in action at all levels of society and governance. Bristol Energy Network (BEN) was proud to be one of the groups supporting strike action on … Continued
Make your #EnergyPledge
For Bristol to reach net zero carbon we all need to play our part. As roughly one third of our carbon emissions are from domestic energy use, there are lots of actions we can take to reduce our carbon footprint and make our energy system clean, green and affordable for everyone. Bristol Energy Network is … Continued
The Centre for Sustainable Energy’s 40th anniversary conference ‘Inspiring Our Sustainable Energy Future’
By Colin Nolden. Colin is a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at University of Bristol Law School. He is also a non-executive director at Community Energy South and currently works for Riding Sunbeams. On Thursday 13 June 2019, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) celebrated its 40th anniversary with a conference and party at ‘We the Curious’ in … Continued
Joint input into Bristol’s Local Plan
By Matt Wood and David Tudgey The new Local Plan will set out how Bristol will develop over the next 20 years. Bristol City Council are running a consultation on the Local Plan until 24 May 2019. This is an important opportunity to feed back on elements of the plan you support, in addition to highlighting … Continued
Reflections from the Bristol Forum
By Ola (Aleksandra) Michalec, UWE Bristol On the 29th March 2019, City Hall hosted the first ever (hopefully one of many!) “Bristol Forum”. The event was organised in a partnership between local universities and Bristol City Council and took a shape of a 1-day interactive conference aimed at local practitioners working on the city challenges. … Continued
Award for Bristol’s REPLICATE programme
By Hayley Ash, REPLICATE Programme Manager for Bristol City Council Bristol has won the Smart Cities UK award 2019 for community engagement. During the Smart Homes project, Bristol City Council and Bristol Energy Network, codesigned all aspects of the project with the local community. This included co-designing the customer journey, contracts, marketing and the mobile … Continued
Community Energy: The Next Generation – hosted by REGEN
My thoughts on the conference by Bob Langton from Low Carbon Gordano I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event with better networking possibilities. I’m not one of the world’s natural networkers and sometimes find myself waiting for the formal sessions to start again but not today – whether it was catching someone from Western … Continued
Debate: Is Community Energy on the Edge of a New Era?
by Paul Phare, new Director for BEN, works for Energy4All This is a good question since the Government is signalling a more market led approach to renewables and the regulatory framework that has underpinned the growth of community energy over the past decade is changing. The event held on Monday 25th February launched a new … Continued