Shropshire Star

Solar panel scheme for Oswestry in jeopardy

Plans for a community-owned solar energy scheme in Oswestry has been put in jeopardy by an 11th hour cut in subsidy.

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Solar panels being installed on a roof

The town council has been working with other organisations across the town on a scheme to put solar panels on a number of public buildings, generating power for the community.

However, just days before the application was to have been submitted, the government announced it could no longer accept applications to the Rural Communities Energy Fund.

The council is meeting to discuss the development.

Councillor Mike Isherwood, who initiated the Council’s investigation into setting up the scheme said it would be a great shame if Oswestry missed out on such an opportunity.

He said the £15 million fund was available to help renewable energy schemes, owned and run by their host communities, get off the ground.

"A year’s hard work had gone into getting the Oswestry project to the application stage and now it is unclear whether the request will be considered or not. It is frustrating and disappointing news for all those who have been involved as there was no warning given that the fund was under review," he said.

"I hope that Defra quickly realises the enormous value of the fund and reverses the decision to deny this important funding to towns like Oswestry which want to help efforts to avert dangerous global warming and invest in energy production which will benefit the community as a whole.

“We’d made brilliant progress with the solar project. The application was just about to be formally submitted after twelve months of information gathering and preparation, and there had been a lot of positive interest from members of the public, especially when we held a public meeting in April.

"We had been given an initial approval of our going ahead with a full application and I was confident that we’d get the grant. If the feasibility study gave us the green light then we could have been looking at this becoming a reality next year. I hope we can find an alternative way of going forward because I think this is a tremendous opportunity with wide-ranging benefits for the people of Oswestry.”

Councillor Isherwood said that without the funding for the necessary feasibility studies he feared it will be more risky for people to invest in the projects.

"This could be catastrophic for the small but growing community energy sector."

He said the funding blow followed other recent cuts by the government including the phasing out of Feed in Tariffs for energy produced by solar panels on the roofs of homes and big reductions in the help offered to make electric vehicles more affordable.

"The timing of this latest cut to the help available for renewable energy is particularly ironic, coming as it does just as the International Panel on Climate Change has issued its clearest warning yet on the devastating level of temperature increase we are in imminent danger of causing if we do not do a lot more to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses over the next few years."