Reading Community Energy Society exists to enable the installation and expansion of renewable and low carbon technologies in and around Reading, for the benefit of the local community, and to help make the area a cleaner, greener place to live.
In 2020 we successfully operated our 22 solar PV systems locally. With a combined capacity of 529 kWp energy – enough to power the equivalent of 154 homes each year – these systems have saved 113,162kg of carbon in 2020. Our community investors saw returns of at least 4.5% this year, keeping to returns predicted before Covid-19.
We have initially focussed on installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on local buildings to enable them to benefit from fixed price, low carbon electricity. After paying reasonable returns to our community of investors, any surplus funds are held in our community grant fund to support wider sustainability locally.
Please see a map below showing the locations of our solar panels installations, colour-coded by the different years they were installed.
In the future, we intend to expand to consider a wider range of technologies and solutions to continue to reduce Reading’s carbon footprint even further.
If you have a potential scheme you would like to discuss with us, visit our future projects page, and if you want to know more about investing in our Society, visit our investor page here.
Visit the Gallery to view images of our solar installations