The registered Objectives of the Society are quite simply stated:
- The objects of the Society shall be to carry on any business for the benefit of the community of Burneside by facilitating an increase in community ownership of renewable energy and low carbon projects and through the distribution of energy within the community”.
- “The Society shall be owned and controlled by its Members on a fair and equitable basis”
To achieve these Objectives, Burneside Community Energy Ltd has chosen an ethical, well tested financial model. We raise capital predominantly from people with an interest in the community of Burneside, aiming to attract lots of small investors rather than depending on one or two large, private or institutional investors. We use that capital to invest in local renewable energy systems or other low carbon projects. The income from these projects will then be used to:
- cover the running and maintenance costs of the projects
- repay the capital investment back to the shareholders
- pay an annual interest to shareholders
- pay into a Community Benefit Fund to support community and environmental projects within and around Burneside Parish
As far as practicable, Burneside Community Energy Ltd will employ local companies to supply, install and service our energy projects in order to retain as much local economic benefit as possible.
BCE Directors
With degrees in forestry and 10 years working in that industry, I started a business making individual tree guards from recycled plastics, including HDPE milk bottles. After 20 years running that business, I was very fortunate to be able to retire to live in Burneside, where I’ve been doing my best to demonstrate to anyone who will listen what we can do as individuals to save the planet. To date, I’ve installed solar panels and a storage battery and am now in my 4th year driving an electric car all over the country. Currently I’m taking various steps to reduce my gas consumption and hope to be able to eliminate my use of fossil fuels within the next 12 months. I’m finding being both an investor in, and a director of, Burneside Community Energy a great opportunity and was very proud to be able to lead last year’s project to install solar panels on the roof of St Oswald’s Primary School.
Phil Davies is a founder Director of Burneside Community Energy and brings a wealth of practical renewable energy and project management experience. Phil has led very practical, multi million pound energy efficiency and renewable retrofit programmes on social housing in west Cumbria. He served as the Social Enterprise Manager for Impact Housing, where he delivered a number of self-financing projects with community benefit. Since 2003, he has been responsible for bringing regional and international funding to public and private renewable energy initiatives within Cumbria. He also works part time as an Environmental Service Manager for Cumbria Action for Sustainability and is Chair of Community Energy Cumbria.
I am married to Caroline. We have two grown up sons and we live in the village. Since retirement as a Lake District National Park ranger I have run a small B&B for walkers on the Dales Way trail. My working life also included serving with the Parachute Regiment, as a police officer and mountain instructor. My interests include volunteering with the Cumbria Youth Offending Service, mountaineering, sea kayaking, travel and playing guitar in a local band. I have been a BCE director since 2015.
Richard is our engineering ‘guru’ having had a varied career across the globe as a projects engineer and more recently within the engineering and utilities teams at James Cropper PLC. He joined the BCE Board in 2019 and helped the team installing Phase 2. He has a lifelong healthy (so he says) interest in technology and in particular the technology related to the climate crisis and global warming. He has invested in ‘greener tech’ in the form of Hyper insulation, power generation equipment, Electric vehicles and power storage in his own home (much to the dismay and confusion of his wife Jo-anne).
I have a background in higher education (lecturing in sustainability) and community development. I live in Kendal and now run a small consultancy that specialises in community and environmental projects. I have been a member of BCE since 2015 and a director since 2019. I am also a trustee of South Lakes Action on Climate Change.
Administrator
I joined BCE as the administrator in March 2020 and have become very proficient in using Zoom to manage board meetings!!! A qualified chartered accountant, I live in South Lakeland, running my own business helping local organisations organise themselves efficiently to ensure they can focus on their main aims.