Sites for next solar project

With the MMNC solar project now fully funded, we’ve been on the lookout for the next location for community-funded solar. We can’t quite publicly reveal our next fundraising target just now, but we are seeking ideas for the next, and the next and the next…

We are looking for sites that meet our criteria of being impactful, effective, provide broad community benefit, where that benefit remains within the community.

If you know of a location/group that would benefit from a community-funded solar project, we’d love to hear from you.

Criteria for crowd-funded community solar

Impactful. The site should see a direct benefit from the donation that will provide an impact to them. This excludes sites where the power bill is not paid, or where the organisation does not have funding constraints

Effective. Sites should consume power regularly in day time hours, with a preference for consumption 7 days. This excludes sites like RFS or Scouts that are predominantly attended at night.

Broad Community Benefit. The ideal site offers benefits that are felt community wide, and ideally, should not exclude community members. This criteria counts against sites that have an exclusive focus such as a bird watching club or a church facility.

Capital benefit remains with the community. The life of a solar power system is many years. It is important that ongoing benefit is delivered, so sites where the beneficiary is a short term tenant and the system would become the property of a private landlord may be problematic. This likely also excludes for-profit enterprises.

Do you know somewhere that fits this description? (It doesn’t have to tick all the boxes.) If so, please let us know, or better still, if you have a connection with the site, get someone there to get in touch.