Growing Energy Co-operatives - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Ouse Valley Energy Services Company (OVESCO) is an organization that was set up by Transition Town Lewes after flooding in 2000. Transition Town Lewes was formed as a community response to the challenges of climate change and the end of fossil fuels. This activity scales up locally owned generation, grows social action, works as a catalyst for low carbon communities, decentralizes the energy supply and tackles fuel poverty.

Fast facts:

In 2012, this activity trained 12 groups who launched four community-owned solar projects;
Over the past few years, OVESCO has assisted over 30 community energy groups, including helping to set up 12 new energy co-operatives in 2014;
This activity built the Big Energy Saving Network, reducing home energy costs and switching energy bills which resulted in saving an estimated GBP 500,000 for the local economy.

The problem

Lewes, Uckfield and surrounding villages in the United Kingdom flooded in 2000, which heightened awareness about climate change.

The solution

This resulted in Transition Town Lewes setting up OVESCO. OVESCO has promoted the use of local installers, which has resulted in over GBP 1.5 million of economic benefits for installing microgeneration since 2007 and by building local economic resilience by reducing CO2 emissions. OVESCO Limited is a Community Benefit Society, which means the company can register with the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority and ask local people to invest in projects to generate renewable energy. OVESCO’s financial model enabled the company to direct local equity investment into projects, investing in locally owned renewable energy to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Helping the planet

This activity creates awareness about climate change and the importance of reducing CO2 emissions.

Helping people

OVESCO’s projects benefit the investors with a return on investment, site owners with free or reduced cost electricity, OVESCO itself with an income for project management and an income stream for a community benefit fund. OVESCO has undertaken a number of school outreach projects focused on learning about climate change and renewable energy. This project actively targets vulnerable and fuel poor homes by providing energy bill and home energy advice and training to 100 frontline workers to disseminate information. Through the training programme, women are provided equal opportunities to ensure a gender balance and ensure that community energy and climate change is equally promoted across genders.

Scaling Up

The OVESCO financial model has allowed the company to plan to scale up its own projects, build a track record and help other groups in Community Energy South do the same. This activity has been working to install community energy on local schools and small cottage businesses. With the growth of new projects they are also starting to look at delivering larger scale projects. This activity also plans to scale up renewable energy and tackle climate change through mentoring other new energy groups across the region, so that they can develop their own community energy projects.