en10ergy Limited is a social enterprise (a Registered Society under the FCA Mutuals Registration) set up by the Muswell Hill Sustainability Group and is a member of Community Energy England. We have two main aims:
- to promote and invest in local renewable energy
- to encourage and facilitate the reduction in carbon emissions and waste by households, businesses and community buildings in Muswell Hill and surrounding areas.
en10ergy is like a trading company in that its members are its shareholders and they are not liable for its debts. On the other hand its activities are not carried on for the benefit of the shareholders, but for the benefit of the community. We have over 100 shareholders, mostly based in Muswell Hill and surrounding areas.
We generate income through electricity sales and the Feed In Tariff from our solar photovoltaic panels on M & S on Muswell Hill Broadway, the Methodist Church in Pages Lane and on Woodside School in Wood Green.
Our solar panel installations
Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels use the sun’s energy to generate electricity that can be fed back into the Grid.
We installed solar pv panels on the roof of Marks and Spencers on Muswell Hill Broadway in July 2010. Marks and Spencers head office supported this as part of their Plan A programme. We also installed solar panels on the roof of the Muswell Hill Methodist Church on Colney Hatch Lane, completed in April 2011.
Both these projects were funded by the (then) Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) through their Low Carbon Communities Challenge. These projects generate revenue through the ‘feed-in’ tariff that the Government pays for micro-generated electricity. We’re using the revenue to fund further carbon emission reduction work in Muswell Hill.
In November 2017 we installed around 150 solar panels on the roof of Woodside School in Wood Green, funded through a share offer. We are looking to install a similar-sized system in 2018.
Solar Power at Woodside
en10ergy raised £95,000 through a community share offer to install photovoltaic panels on roofs at Woodside High School in Wood Green. In November 2017 around 150 panels were installed on the sports hall roof and are now generating clean solar electricity. Unfortunately we were able to install less panels than anticipated due to the unsuitability of part of the roof at Woodside School, which was revealed following detailed structural surveys. We are now working with other potential host sites to install the remaining panels during 2018.
The Woodside High School panels are owned and maintained by en10ergy, who sell the electricity they generate to the school at a discount from the usual market price. Electricity sales and the government’s Feed In Tariff, which everyone who installs pv panels is enttitled to, will provide en10ergy with an income to pay its investors. The price en10ergy charges for its electricity will save the school, and Riverside School for special needs, which shares the power supply, about £1400 a year.
About 34 tons of carbon emissions will be saved each year.
en10ergy will also provide a grant towards developing educational material which can use information from the solar panels for teaching in the schools, and will assist in the delivery of a suitable and creative teaching aid.
Solar panels installed on Woodside School’s sports hall
We have used an innovative financial model to raise capital for the project. Since government support for the renewables industry has been drastically reduced in recent years, driving a number of small providers out of business, it has been necessary to look for new ways of making community energy projects financially viable and appealing to those who would like to invest in them.
We will use the secure income from our existing generating facilities to back our current project by ensuring an interest rate on our shares of about 4% a year, and paying back a proportion of the capital invested each year as well. By doing this we can reduce the period of payback on the investment to 12 years. We feel that, given the age profile which research has shown to be typical of investors in socially beneficial projects like this, the period of twelve years will make a more attractive offer.
LEDs at Woodside
During 2017 we’ve helped Woodside High School apply for government Salix funding to install over 500 LED bulbs. This will save the school around £9,000 per year which can be redirected to teaching and learning. The bulbs were installed in Summer 2017.
