Tag Archives: energy savers

Energy Savers at Warwick Hospital

Community Energy Warwickshire has successfully run the first of a series of Energy Savers sessions for staff at Warwick Hospital.

The two hour sessions aim to help people to find out more about the range of ways in which they can save energy in their home – and to see how they can do this in practice!

Each session includes a talk on energy costs and ways to reduce them from David Jullien, Chief Executive of Act on Energy, the energy efficiency advice service for Warwickshire, as well as practical exercises to help participants see what changes might help them to save energy – and cut their fuel bills.

The sessions conclude with suggestions about ways in which staff might save energy at work – and so help Warwick Hospital cut its energy costs.

The sessions are part of a link up between Community Energy Warwickshire and South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, the body which runs Warwick Hospital. As part of this link up, Community Energy Warwickshire installed solar panels on roofs at Warwick and Stratford hospitals earlier this year.

Roger Matthews from Community Energy Warwickshire, who has helped organise the Energy Savers sessions, says: “When Community Energy Warwickshire installed solar panels on the roofs of Stratford and Warwick hospitals, it was the first time an NHS Trust had worked on energy improvements with a local community organisation. We are now taking this working relationship a stage further by supporting the Trust’s efforts to reduce energy use and energy bills through our offer of Energy Savers sessions to Trust staff.”

Further Energy Savers sessions are planned in December and in the new year.

AGM approves a successful year

Members of Community Energy Warwickshire heard of the sucesses of the last year at the co-op’s 2012 Annual General Meeting, held in Leamington Spa on Tuesday 22 May 2012.

Co-op Secretary Barbara Cooper recalled that at the 2011 Annual General Meeting “we did not even have a bank account”. But in the last year, Community Energy Warwickshire has successfully installed 60 kWp of solar panels at roofs at Stratford upon Avon and Warwick Hospitals, thanks to an innovative agreement with South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospitals.

Funding for the installations was raised through a share offer which raised over £100,000, and the project also involved the development of a new template for solar panel leases, which is now available to other community groups. Co-op members also heard how the project had to navigate the uncertainties created by the Government’s attempts to cut feed-in tariffs for solar energy installations.

Following the installation of the solar panels, the co-op has carried out an initial feasibility study of hte use of local food waste to generate energy through anaerobic digestion and it is launching an Energy Savers scheme to help households reduce energy consumption in the home. Community Energy Warwickshire’s newly expanded Board will be developing plans for future projects over the summer.

Community Energy Warwickshire is also a finalist in this year’s Renewable Energy Association awards.