Hay Energy Assembly Part 2

 There was also a speaker from Llangattock Green Valleys, near Crickhowell, Simon Walter.  Now, I have a vested insterest in them, because I am a share holder.  I signed up with them when they were doing a stall at a local event - I forget what it was now.  They've been in existance since 2009, and have several micro-hydro electricity generators in the hills around Llangattock and Crickhowell, as well as a beekeeping project, a woodland project and other things.  

I think it was Simon who warned that setting up a local community energy company was a long, slow process, and it had to be done one step at a time - so our first step is to get as many people involved and enthusiastic about the project as possible.  Green Valleys did it by holding events in the five communities that their area covered.  This will be easier in Hay, because the population is much more centralised.  

Another thing they did was to have maps where people could mark where they thought were suitable sites for e.g. solar panels, and where were the "cherished spots" where they didn't want to see anything to do with energy generation.

In the last 18 months or so they've been trying to take their energy production to the next level, and the Green Valleys volunteer who came along was very enthusiastic about it.  Peter had started with very little knowledge about renewable energy, but he's got up to speed very quickly over the time he's been volunteering.

We'd run out of time for the film on solar energy, so we went straight into the second part of the meeting, which was to discuss the question put to us by the organisers:

"In an ideal world what do we, the people in this room, think are the best ways for us to gain community support and participation in generating community owned renewable energy locally and in setting up Hay Energy?"

We all thought that the map was a brilliant idea, and our table was also keen on "love bombing" the community - getting as much local publicity as possible for the project.  

As well as a facilitator and a note taker for each table (we got through a lot of post it notes!) the Assembly was also trialing some new tech which recorded each table's conversations via mobile phone, so there was a record that could be looked at later.

Our table also discussed some of the more practical ideas for energy generation, and the way that there's really nothing new in having micro-hydro schemes - there were several watermills locally in Victorian times, and one of them, up Cusop Dingle, was used to supply electricity to Brynmelin in 1911!

At the end, each table presented its findings to the wider assembly, and the organisers will go away and collate those findings and see which were most popular.

In May, there will be another Assembly, this time on Mental Well-Being.  The date, May 10th, was chosen so that the Welsh Commissioner for Future Generations (I think it was) could be present.  Mike Eccles met her by chance at another meeting, and she said she'd be very keen to come along to see what we were doing in Hay.