A NICE way to generate energy

Northern Ireland’s first solar energy bencom is offering community shares. Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE) launched at the All Party Group on Co-operatives and Mutuals at Stormont on...

Northern Ireland’s first solar energy bencom is offering community shares. Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE) launched at the All Party Group on Co-operatives and Mutuals at Stormont on 3 March.

It aims to raise £150,000, which it will use to install free solar panels on nine buildings owned by community organisations. Participants will benefit from discounted electricity for 20 years.

NICE has already completed a pilot on the roof of Mediation NI’s offices on University Street in Belfast. Rob Colwell of Mediation NI said the new photovoltaic panels would halve its energy bills: “We were amazed at how straightforward and quick this has been,” he said. “We discussed it with our board and two months later the panels were in place on the roof generating low cost electricity.

“As an organisation we support green ideals and we’re always trying to reduce our carbon footprint and save money. In addition, we liked that NICE is a co-operative. We support the ideal of working in collaboration with other organisations and also helping the community.”

NICE will sell surplus energy to the grid. Profits will be pumped into a fund supporting energy saving initiatives and low carbon technologies to tackle fuel poverty in Northern Ireland. Investors can expect a return of around 4%.

The bencom is the brainchild of a group of volunteers with a track record in renewable energy and co-ops, including farmer Karen Arbuckle, retired civil servant Douglas McIldoon, who formerly worked in the regulation of Northern Ireland’s energy sector, and Andrew McMurray of Drumlin Wind Energy Co-operative, which raised £2.7m in community shares.

Andrew McMurray said: “Traditional energy companies aim to maximise profit that reaches a small number of individuals. Our community-owned co-operative is based on a decentralised and far more equitable model that helps the environment, helps the local community, and is built upon principles of fairness.”

Steven Agnew, chair of the All Party Group on Co-operatives and Mutuals, added: “Schemes like this ensure that renewable energy investments provide a return for our economy and our community, as well as contributing to efforts to tackle climate change.”

Tiziana O’Hara, director of Co-operative Alternatives, which is supporting the bencom as part of the Building Change Trust’s Community Shares, Ready! pilot, said: “This project is ideal for a community share offer because it has clear community benefits and will deliver via a strong community model. NICE will be similar to a distributed power station for Northern Ireland, owned by the people. It will shift the way we own and produce energy.”

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