Big news - SCE’s first major milestone.
- Surrey Community Energy
- Feb 23
- 3 min read
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve successfully secured funding from the GB Energy Community Fund! A huge thanks to the Greater South East Net Zero Hub (GSENZH) and the GB Energy Community Fund (GBCEF) for supporting us with this grant.
It is great to be listed among the projects in the South East region successful in securing funds as part of the GBECF Round 2 applications, and highlights the potential impact of SCE’s first community energy project!
What Does This Grant Mean for SCE’s Plans?
In short, it will significantly speed up our progress on our first project, at Birtley House in Bramley. The project will include roof mounted solar on the premises, as well as some ground mount on a grassy patch to the rear of the property.
The grant will cover:
Planning application costs
Ecological and biodiversity net gain surveys
Legal costs
Whilst costs like this could be covered in a future share offer (alongside the raising of capital funds for the PV array) this would have slowed us down by several months. Not only do those costs impact the overall benefits of a project, the delay would mean we wouldn’t get the array in before summer 2026. We will of course need to meet all the demands of ecological surveys and planning permission before beginning - so it’s not guaranteed that we can make a summer deadline, but it’s our ambition to have the array generating clean energy by this coming summer. Keep your fingers crossed!
So the grant is excellent news all round - a great first milestone for Surrey Community Energy. And how great to receive one of the first grants dished out from the new GB Energy set up via the Net Zero Hub.
Will You Still Be Able to Invest?
Yes! The grant covers the items listed above, but it doesn’t cover the cost of the solar panels or their installation.
We will be raising a share offer to cover the supply and installation costs. A share offer is the mechanism through which you can buy shares in the project, and you’ll receive an annual return which we currently predict to be around 5-6%.
We will be launching a ‘pledge period’ so that interested investors get an early opportunity to invest.
What Happens Next?
Now that our grant funding agreement is signed off by both parties the next steps will be along these lines:
Ecological surveys: We need to conduct survey to ensure that we’re not only protecting nature, but meeting biodiversity net gain requirements (BNG) to actually enhance nature provisions on site. We’ve instructed Surrey Wildlife Trust’s planning team to conduct surveys and check our BNG plans, and the ecological survey was conducted in mid-February.
Planning permission: Once the ecological reports are complete, the full planning application will be submitted. It will take around 8 weeks for us to hear back on this. A huge thanks to planning consultant Marion in the SCE team who is volunteering her time to help us navigate this process.
Pledge period: The next step is where you come in! We’ll launch a ‘pledge period’ for those of you who have expressed interest in investing. This will start roughly 4 weeks before the share offer is launched.
Share offer launch: Once the share offer is live, there will be a short window for investors to buy shares in the project. Full terms will be provided in the Share Offer Pack once launched.
Get Installing! Then we’ll instruct the installer, and work will begin!
How You Can Help Right Now
We’ll notify our mailing list once the pledge period starts, and of course when the Share Offer goes live. But in the meantime, the key way you can support SCE is to spread the word!
If you're not signed up to our mailing list, then do so today to be kept up to date.
Tell anyone you think might be keen to invest in local electricity in Surrey.
Follow us on social media (links below).
Share our posts on your own social media.
Once again, a huge thanks to the GB Energy Community Fund and the Greater South East Energy Hub, and to all of you for the ongoing support.
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