PV panels popular in the village

People across the village are taking advantage of the Feed in Tariffs and installing impressive PV arrays. Martin (left) & Jane Colville selected a 'black pinstripe' design for their array and are pleased with the generation and happy to 'do their bit' to make Ashton Hayes a more sustainable village. The Savil family have installed PVs on the barns (right)

The newly created Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company has also registered the PV arrays on the low carbon pavilion and primary school roofs and will use the FiTs income to invest in more sustainability projects in the village.

The community car - a video update

Thanks to the hard work of Greg Ambrose and Tom Ellis we are getting more sign ups to our community electric car, a Nissan Leaf. They have done a series of promotions around Ashton Hayes. But we still need more customers! Here is a video they have kindly made to explain our difficulties. Well done guys.

Highly Commended by IET

Sadly we did not win the Sustainability award at the IET event on 9 November but we did get a 'highly commended' and we were all pleased to have been finalists from over 40 project entries this year. Thanks to EA Technology for hosting the table.

We are shortlisted for the IET award

We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Institute of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Sustainability award 2011. We have been shortlisted in the 'Sustainability' category for Expanding and Managing Community Energy through Technical and Social Collaboration in conjunction with our supporters Ashton Hayes, EA Technology Limited and ScottishPower. Fingers crossed for Wednesday night, 9 November.

Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company is formed

We are pleased to announce the formation of the Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company - a Community Interest Company (CIC) that will manage the generation of renewable energy in the village. All profits generated by the company will be ploughed back into sustainability initiatives in the community. Thanks to Carbon Leapfrog for the free advice on legal issues and to Professor Roy Alexander for doing all the paperwork! More on this soon.