Dorset Community Energy are inviting suitably qualified contractors to tender for solar PV installations across eight separate sites in Dorset.

The site details and tender proforma are available below and tenders should be returned to the society by 5pm on 9^th Feb 2024 together with any supporting documentation.

Please note that the sites are not owned by DCE and therefore access for site surveys is not available at this stage of the tender process. Contractors are requested to quote based on the details provided in the tender document. Successful contractors will be invited to site visits to confirm final design details at a later date.

Any queries should be directed to geoff@dorsetcommunityenergy.org.uk and responses will be published on this website for the benefit of all contractors.

Click here for Tender Pack

Last year, 2018, was the second sunniest UK year on record according to the Met Office, with 1575 hours of sunshine landing on our solar panels.  We generated 445,876 kWh of electricity, more than 10% above that predicted in our share offer documents.  Dorset Community Energy (DCE) members benefitted from an interest payment of 5.5% in September.

If you are interested, do read this article and complete the survey (link below), or if you are too busy – go straight to the survey Please complete by 10th March – once we have thirty responses we will make a donation to Trees for Life, who plant trees in the Scottish Highlands.

If you were at our AGM, you will have heard that we won a grant application to the Rural Community Energy Fund to meet the costs of technical and feasibility studies for a new round of solar photovoltaic panel installations on schools.

The feasibility studies are now almost completed. Six schools and five hospital sites have expressed interest and have been assessed as feasible using a similar financial model to our existing installations, members will be invited to purchase shares and will receive annual interest payments and the investment capital back in instalments over a 20 year period.  

Dorset Community Energy (DCE) also secured funding from the Rural Community Energy Fund to carry out a feasibility study to supply solar photovoltaic electricity to 53 new homes being developed by Bridport Co-Housing and designed to Passiv House specifications.

DCE appointed consultants Wessex Energy Solutions (WES) to conduct the study which has shown that using a standard model of installing panels onto homes and selling electricity to the householders would not be financially viable, however installing an array of panels whose electricity is shared across the houses, by a micro-grid, backed up with a storage battery is financially viable.  WES worked with microgrid experts Clean Energy Prospector (CEPRO).

If you are considering installing solar photovoltaic panels, or any other renewable electricity technology on your home then you need to act quickly as the Feed-in Tariff will close to new installations on 31^st March 2019.

Of course you can install solar photovoltaic panels without the Feed-in Tariff, but to get the best return from your investment you will need to use the electricity when you generate it, i.e. in the day-time!  The Feed-in Tariff is designed to reward you for feeding electricity into the grid.