Ashton Hayes invited to participate at Hay Festival Wales 2024

Saturday 25 May 2024, 10am – Meadow Stage

The instigator of the Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral project, Garry Charnock, will be in conversation with broadcaster and author Kate Humble and other remarkable individuals who created leading climate projects, igniting hope and progress, all inspired by events at Hay Festival in previous years.

In 2005, Garry was inspired by an event at Hay Festival featuring Sir David King to create England's first carbon neutral village. Film producer Franny Armstrong honed the groundbreaking 1010 Campaign with Ed Miliband on the train back from Hay Festival in 2009; and Professor Ed Hawkins created the Climate Stripes, illustrating temperature change, as part of the Hay Festival Trans.MISSION project in 2018.

The event will be held on the Meadow Stages at 10am on Saturday 25 May 2024

Event 37 Franny Armstrong, Garry Charnock, Ed Hawkins and Kate Humble in conversation

Price £13

"Growing up green" article released by Rebecca Collins

We are delighted to announce that Rebecca Collins of the University of Chester has published her first article that details how the Going Carbon Neutral Project influenced the attitudes of young people growing up in the village between 2005-2020. Here is a link to the article that is published with open access.

Rebecca's research delves into the ways community action on climate change can influence young people and examines the longer term implications of how they meet the challenges of reducing their carbon footprint as they embark on their careers outside school and the community?

Above: The University of Chester student survey team carried out the first village survey back in 2006 

AGM 2023 Presentation in the Parish Rooms

The Ashton Hayes Community Energy C.I.C. held its Annual General Meeting on Monday 3rd April 2023 at 7:30pm in the Parish Rooms. Roy Alexander was in the chair. The slides are here.

The Company will continue to carry on activities which benefit the community of Ashton Hayes, in particular to:

• Develop, install, manage, operate, generate, transmit and provide the supply of energy from renewable energy sources.

• Promote awareness of environmental issues, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The Directors for 2022/23 are:

• Roy Alexander
• Garry Charnock
• Lauren Colville
• Kate Harrison (Hon. Secretary) • Maria Lindley
• Andy Pennick
• Richard Stradling
• David Wilson (Hon. Treasurer)

Roy Alexander (left) is stepping down as chair in the coming months and a member of the Board will take over.

We all wish to thank Roy for his many years of committment to the project and as chair of the CIC. 

The Going Carbon Neutral Project started back in 2005 and is one of the longest running community efforts in combatting climate change. 

AGM will be on 3rd April 2023

Members of Ashton Hayes Community Energy CIC are invited to attend our AGM at 7:30pm on 3rd April in the Parish Rooms. Please come along and hear our presentation about our activities over the past year and learn about our plans for the coming months. We look forward to seeing you and answering any questions you may have.

How our solar panels are performing at the school & pavilion

This information (report 1 and report 2) on the Import and Export data from the meters at the School and Pavilion. The reports cover the period August 2022 to January 2023 and illustrate the benefits of PV Systems at the Primary School and Sports Pavilion through reducing Electricity Supply Costs and also explain the potential for further optimisation.

Report 2 also shows the Pavilion Cafe Freezer and Fridge Power Consumption during 5 weeks of monitoring.

We believe that the school would have bills 25% higher without the PV and based on current price capped rates this suggests a saving in excess of £2500 per year.

Export meters were installed by SMS (on behalf of Green Energy UK) at both the Sports Pavilion and the Primary School. Since this time we have been able to see precisely how much of the Generated electricity we are Exporting to the grid, and thus deduce how much of the Generation we are truly consuming. This has also permitted us to see exactly what the total electricity consumption is, by combining the measured Supply meter reading (Import) with the part of the Generation that we are consuming.

Both reports were produced by AHCEC CIC board member Richard Stradling and we are extremely grateful for his comprehensive analysis.