News

⦁ A chance to visit the recently re-opened Literary and Scientific Institute. ⦁ We’ve organised a finger buffet from 18:30 – 19:00 ⦁ You get to vote on the interest payment and to elect your Directors, or even become one yourself.  (If you can’t come do use your proxy vote…

On 25th May during a visit to Dorset, Prince Charles officially opened the new Literary and Scientific Institute building in Bridport. Tim and other local people have spent several years raising funds for the historic building which has been refurbished to a high standard. The Institute now includes a spacious…

Thank you to those of you who completed our recent survey into attitudes about renewable energy in Dorset.  We are currently applying for feasibility funding for two new projects in Dorset. The first is to investigate the possibility of setting up a micro-grid for renewable energy in a co-housing project…

Are you enjoying the sun? It’s been fuelling the arts in Bridport. This graph shows that on 26th June – Bridport Arts Centre was completely powered by DCE solar panels between 10:30am and 6:00pm.

On May 25th 2018, the new General Data Protection Regulations came in, tightening the law on how personal data is collected, stored and used.  We sent out two mailings to our mailing list in April and May asking people to opt in to continue to receive our newsletter. 75% of…

Do you like fancy chocolates – then read on! To date Dorset Community Energy has raised nearly half a million pounds from community share offers and installed 420kW on 16 schools and community buildings across Dorset. We are currently paying our members 5.5% interest on their investment, and will shortly…

The sun shone last year, and we generated 5% more electricity than predicted, which is good news for members’ interest payments. 

To date Dorset Community Energy has only been able to provide monitoring equipment and educational activities for schools where we have installed solar panels. Now, we have secured a grant of £1,750 from the Postcode Local Trust (a grant-giving charity funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery  www.postcodelocaltrust.org.uk) for Damers First…

This year’s AGM will be held in Bridport on Tuesday 17th July at 7pm, venue to be confirmed.  The papers will be sent to members electronically at least three weeks in advance of the meeting.  Please save the date and come along.

Pete West, Dorset Community Energy secretary and a volunteer helping with educational activities, has produced a short video to demonstrate how to make a spinning paper plate solar model, which has proved popular with children of primary school age. The video can be viewed on YouTube at this link                                           https://youtu.be/sHzHEC_SyIc  

In 2017, DCE’s 420kW of installed solar photovoltaic capacity generated 423,000 kWh of electricity, that’s 5% higher than predicted, which is likely to mean that members will benefit from 5.5% interest on their investment again this year. Have you ever wondered why people talk about kilowatts peak when they are talking…

Following acceptance of the Dorset Community Energy Annual Accounts at the AGM held on 12th July and approval of the directors’ recommendation to pay members 5.5% interest, payments to members were completed by 9th September. The directors are optimistic that the target 5%-6% p.a. interest on members’ shares will be…