Posts by Tammy Calvert

Reading School has benefitted from a series of grant-funded interactive workshops imagining sustainable futures. In the workshops, led by local Social Enterprise Design Nature, pupils explored the potential for more renewable energy in the future and devised Action Plans as to how to get there. The workshops focussed on design challenges and innovations, allowing students…

A ranking of the solar energy capacity of councils in England, Wales and Scotland puts Reading borough in the top 20% of council areas. The analysis, which uses government data published this autumn by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, puts our solar energy capacity in 70th place out of 363 councils, with an…

Would you like low cost energy from a renewable source installed for free right on your roof?  Reading Community Energy Society is actively looking to expand our portfolio of buildings on which we install solar panels for free. With rising energy prices and businesses being squeezed by increasing costs, many of us are looking to…

Reading Community Energy Society (RCES) will say goodbye to our founding Chair, Tony Hoskins, and we welcome Tony Cowling, who will take up the position later this year. Tony Hoskins has chaired the society since its inception 6 years ago, helping it get off the ground and flourish into the success it is today. Reading…

Reading Community Energy Society (RCES) has recently awarded a grant to fund a vegetable growing project at Highdown School and Sixth Form Centre in Emmer Green. The school used the grant of £500 to purchase vegetable planters in a project spearheaded by Year 8 student Callum Potter. Callum and the Estate Staff built trugs and…

True Food Co-op in Emmer Green has slashed the amount of electricity used for lighting their shop by 65% after upgrading to LED lighting. The not-for profit community shop received a grant from Reading Community Energy Society to help undertake the project, completed in August 2021, and they haven’t looked back. Chair of True Food Co-op, Francis…

Reading Community Energy Society is celebrating its 5th anniversary in July. Since the first share offer was released on July 15th 2016 the society has raised enough funds to install solar power systems on 22 buildings across Reading including Reading Central Library and the University of Reading. The average electricity produced by all the solar…

Chiltern Hills Community Energy (CHCE) has been recently established by Henley Town Council’s Climate Emergency Working Group in order to meet their renewable energy objectives, covering a wide area of Henley and beyond. Working in partnership with Reading Community Energy society (RCES), CHCE’s first steps have been to identify suitable buildings (public, community and commercial)…