Meet the generator: Bristol Energy Cooperative
At Good Energy, we buy our 100% renewable power from over 2000 independent renewable generators across Britain.
One of these generators is Bristol Energy Cooperative – and this is their story.
Benefitting the local community
Set up in 2011, Bristol Energy Cooperative develops renewable energy and energy efficiency projects for the benefit of the local community.
“We exist to provide a benefit to the community, and a lot of our sites are right in the heart of the communities that we serve.” Andy O’Brien, Founding Director of Bristol Energy Cooperative.
With a growing portfolio of clean energy projects, the Co-operative has so far installed 14 solar panel installations on the rooftops of community hubs across the city; as well as building two solar farms.
Not only do they pass on over £40,000 in annual energy bill savings to the 14 community centres, they also invest the revenue from selling renewable power into community benefit funds. Since 2011, they have channeled over £350,000 to 50+ community groups that have applied for funding for carbon-cutting projects.
Generating power locally
The UK is on a journey to net zero. Part of that transition means moving away from large power stations that supply millions of customers, and instead towards millions of power stations generating, using and sharing power on a local level. Not only is is more energy efficient to generate and use power locally, it will also help our grid to be a lot more flexible and lower carbon.
At Good Energy, we already work like this. We buy the power that our customers use from 2000 generators across Britain – you can see where they are all based on this map.
“The nice thing about Good Energy is that they do work with lots of very local energy suppliers, like us. If we are going to go net zero, we need to be producing power everywhere.”
Andy O’Brien, Co-founder of Bristol Energy Cooperative.
Find out more about our generator community, and watch other videos in the series here.
