Leominster Community Solar

We thought you might be interested in a quick update on our performance and we have good news! The estimated reading to 16/10/19 is 45,152kWh for the calendar year so far. This is already 15% higher than the projections for whole of 2019. Let’s hope for some pleasant autumnal weather to keep up this trend.

As you will have read in your recent papers, Ann Ashley will be standing down from her role as director after many years of dedicated service – it seems like the 8 years has passed very quickly! THANK YOU Ann for your dedication and hard work for the coop.

To carry on running the co-op in line with the rules, we need to maintain 3 directors (and a secretary) on the board at all times. Any director also has to be a part of the membership, so we cannot recruit for this position outside of the co-op, without that person first becoming a member. Therefore we are directly appealing to the existing members before the next AGM for a volunteer.

The role is not particularly onerous – we have quarterly telephone calls, but mostly the work required happens in the month proceeding and immediately after the AGM. Otherwise the day to day administration is handled by Sharenergy. None of the current directors had been on a co-op board before, when they took their roles on, so there is no need for anyone to feel they do not have the required experience! We simply share the responsibility of guiding the direction of the co-op and ensure due diligence on decision making and will support you so you can contribute usefully.

We are pleased to confirm that the 2019 AGM of Leominster Community Solar Co-op will be held on the evening of Thursday 25th July at Grange Court, Pinsley Road, Leominster, HR6 8NL. Papers have been sent out via email as usual with full details and voting information.

We look forward to seeing you!

Many thanks

Ann, Ben & Rich

We are pleased to confirm that the 2018 AGM of Leominster Community Solar Co-op will be held on the evening of Thursday 19th July.

As in previous years we will also hold the Leominster Sunrise Co-op at the same event. Details, timings and venue will be confirmed shortly.

If any Members wish to stand for election to the Board of the Society then please contact Sharenergy either by email or by calling 01743 835242 by Monday 25th June.

Should any Members wish to include a motion in the Agenda of the AGM, again, please contact Sharenergy by Monday 25th June.

Many thanks

Ann, Ben & Rich

Dear Members,

We thought you may be interested in some recent activity to clean the panels and carry out some maintenance. Ben gives us an update:

In May the panels were cleaned for the first time at Bridge Street since the array was installed. Due to the nature of the roof it is unfortunately quite expensive to clean the panels because of the specialist access required – but also necessary because of the upper panels being at a very shallow angle, and fairly close to both the recycling centre (dusty) and some tall, pollen laden trees . We will therefore be looking at doing some kind of analysis to work out the best period for cleaning cycles. Here are some photos of the work:

Some testing has been done to prove the safety systems and quality of the wiring is up to standard – this showed only minor impacts from degradation over time. A minor upgrade to the earthing system may be required. A program of planned maintenance is being devised due to the requirements of our insurance policy. We had a small drop out of information from the monitoring system which has been rectified, but output was not affected. The system is performing at similar levels to other systems we are aware of in the area, and above predicted levels. Some more work will be done on checking performance of the system on a per inverter basis.

Looking forward to seeing you at the AGM!

Dear Members,

As per our email communications, we would like to invite you to the next Leominster Community Solar Co-op Annual General Meeting, which will be held at Grange Court, Pinsley Road, Leominster, HR6 8NL at 6:30pm, on Thursday 15th June. The AGM will be held in conjunction with Leominster Sunrise Co-op.

An Agenda and other papers will be distributed to members in the next few days.

Only members of each individual co-op are able to attend the formal business of each respective AGM, but as they will be run in succession, if you are a member of more than one, you will be able to attend each meeting.

Best wishes,

Ben, Ann, Richard

Dear Members,

As per our email communications, you are invited to the next Leominster Community Solar Co-op Annual General Meeting, which will be held at Grange Court in Leominster, at 7pm, on Thursday 21st July. The AGM will be held in conjunction with Leominster Sunrise Co-op.

Only members of each individual co-op are able to attend the formal business of each respective AGM, but as they will be run in succession, if you are a member of more than one, you will be able to attend each meeting.

Following the AGM business, Gordon Coppock, Chair of Kleen (an environmental group) in Kington, Director or Pomona Solar Co-op, Energy Consultant and electric vehicle advocate has kindly agreed to give a presentation. He will talk about electric vehicle charging in Herefordshire and his funded EU bid to help electric vehicles to take off in Herefordshire.

Best wishes,

Ben, Ann, Richard

Dear Members

You are invited to the next Leominster Community Solar Co-op Annual General Meeting, which will be held at Grange Court in Leominster, from 7-9pm, on Thursday 16th July. This will be held in conjunction with 2 other Herefordshire solar co-operatives, Pomona Solar and Leominster Sunrise Co-op.

Only members of each individual co-op are able to attend the formal business of each respective AGM, but as they will be run in succession, if you are a member of more than one, you will be able to attend each meeting. In between, there will be light refreshments in the café area in the foyer, a chance to mingle and view the exhibition of other projects and celebrate the success of community owned solar in Herefordshire.

For LCSC, the AGM will be held at 8.15-9pm.

Eithne George, one of the current 4 directors will be standing down and will not be standing for re-election to the board. If you would like to stand for election, please send a paragraph about yourself to Sharenergy by end of day on the 23rd June.

If you have any motions you would like to propose for the agenda, please also let us know by this date.

Further details about how to find the venue and parking will be included when the papers are sent out at the end of June.

Regards
Ben, Ann, Richard and Eithne

With the handover of the new Leominster primary school from the contractors to the Council now imminent, we are hopefully days away from being able to turn on the Sunrise Cooperative array. This news comes as we have our own good news on saving 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide (see post below). Leominster is blazing a trail for solar co-ops in the UK, setting a number of ‘firsts’, of which we are very proud.  

The sooner we can get the Sunrise share offer complete, the sooner we can set to work on all the other ideas for solar co-ops in the town that are swirling around.  Please do pass the word on that we only have £34,500 worth of shares remaining, as word of mouth is always the best way to find new members.

For more information on the Leominster Sunrise Co-Op project, please click here.

Those eagle eyed watchers may have seen… we are about to reach 100 tonnes of CO2 avoided! Another milestone reached during a good year of performance. To date, we are tracking very similar to 2013.

For live information on the installation, click here.