Fantastic News: SCE Granted Planning Permission
- Surrey Community Energy
- Jun 3
- 4 min read
We’re thrilled to share some great news with you; Surrey Community Energy has been granted planning approval for our first community energy installation, in the borough of Waverley, Surrey.
This means that we can proceed with our partners at Birtley House care home, installing a community-owned 100kw peak solar array, split between a roof mount on the wings of the main building, and a ground mount to the rear of the property.
And it means that you can now register your interest in investing in a local, community-owned energy generation project! Complete this short form to register your interest, and read on to understand the difference between this non-binding pledge and the final Share Offer.
It’s a great outcome for us, and great reward the team members who continue to dedicate their time to this project. And a big thanks to Marion, the planning expert who helped us navigate the planning permission process.
You may remember that in February we reached a first milestone by securing our first funding pot, via the GB Energy Community Fund. That seed funding has covered the planning costs, and another chunk will now go toward the legal agreements and approvals.
So this planning decision marks another major milestone reached for SCE, and the next big one will be getting spades in the ground as we begin installing the project later this year.
The next month will see us hopefully tie up the particulars of the project, including finalising the terms of the Share Offer that will allow community members to invest in the project.
What Is A Share Offer
For those of you new to community energy, a community share offer is the method by which we raise funds for the installation of the solar array.
As a very basic summary; anyone wishing to invest in a great, local clean energy generation project can buys shares through the share offer (there is a minimum and maximum investment, which will be laid out in the share offer, but will likely be £200 minimum to £10,000 maximum).
Once we hit the target, which is likely to be somewhere in the region of £100,000-£110,000, the installation begins, and when installation is complete SCE sells the electricity to the site owner at an agreed cost.
This means the site owner benefits by getting electricity cheaper than their current price, investors receive an estimated 5-6% return on investment (as well as receiving their capital back), and as a non-profit SCE uses any surplus for community benefit. Basically, everybody wins.
On 2nd June we launched a ‘pledge period’, in advance of the Share Offer release, to help us estimate the level of appetite for investment within our existing stakeholder base and local residents.
This will be done by low-key advertising through select channels, including a couple of key Surrey community newsletters and social media.
Pledging is not a binding commitment, but it’s a very helpful process to us as a community benefit society to understand what our plan is for promoting the Share Offer.
To clarify the distinction between the pledge period and Share Offer:
Pledge Period
The pledge period is simply a non-binding indication of what you might eventually invest via the Share Offer. It’s a useful way for community energy groups to determine whether we need to cast the net a bit wider when we launch the share offer.
To pledge an investment, please take a moment to complete this very short form. It will only take about 60 seconds, and will be extremely helpful to us in gauging how much to market the official share offer.
Because the pledge is non-binding, we also cannot guarantee that it secures you future shares in the Birtley House project. Our neighbours at Energise South Downs recently launched a share offer and raised the full £300,000 in just 9 days! As share offers work on a first-come first-serve basis, that meant some folks who had pledged missed the opportunity to invest.
So if you are keen to invest with SCE, we strongly recommend you sign up for our newsletter and keep an eye on your inbox from early July.
The pledge period will run until June 15th.
Share Offer
The official Share Offer will be the point at which you formally invest in the Birtley House array. This will be a more complex procedure as we will need to gather all the information to issue the shares and make interest payments etc.
The Share Offer will lay out the exact terms, including the rate of interest you’ll receive annually, the split between interest and capital repayment, the procedure if you need to withdraw shares etc.
Key Points
As a community benefit society we need to comply with Cooperatives UK legalities, and this includes being registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, ensuring your data and details will be handled in compliance with the law.
All of the funding raised via the Birtley House share offer goes towards the energy project itself. SCE Directors are voluntary, and we will not get paid from this funding.
We cannot over-raise for this project; ie we have to close the share offer when we reach the target amount, so it is likely to be first-come-first-served.
What To Do Next
Noting the above example from Energise South Downs, once the Share Offer launches it’s a good idea to register your investment asap. So, if you're keen, we suggest you complete the pledge form, and then keep an eye on your inbox from July. Once the Share Offer launches, get in there early to avoid disappointment, because we will have to close the opportunity once we hit the pre-set target.
If you’re not signed up to our newsletter, and are interested in investing, we recommend you sign up via the form on our website. This way you will be notified when the Share Offer launches and will avoid the disappointment of investing in a great community project.
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