Cornwall Council is shortlisted for prestigious Green Energy Award

Cornwall Council is shortlisted for prestigious Green Energy Award, the Most Proactive Public Sector Body Award in this year’s South West Green Energy Awards. 

The awards, now in their 12th year, are organised by Regen SW to celebrate the innovation and creative ingenuity that has put the south west at the forefront of the green energy revolution.

The Council has been shortlisted for the prestigious award for the pioneering work of its Future Economy Team.  The team, which is based in the authority’s  economic development service, provides the coordination, funding and support to help realise the Council’s sustainable energy ambitions and has led on a wide range of projects, including major energy efficiency, electric vehicle charge point, energy switching, and community energy schemes that have delivered significant outcomes for Cornwall.

The Council’s actions have helped to deliver:

• 3,000 home energy retrofits, saving more than 500 hospital admissions annually;
• £500,000 in savings on resident’s fuel bills through collective switching programmes;
• A network of 38 charging points across Cornwall – the largest rural electric car charging network in the country;
• A Road Map to the future commercialisation of marine renewable energy in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by 2025;
• An increase in the local benefits from our energy system with approximately 25% of Cornwall’s energy generation being owned locally, including nearly 8MW of Council owned solar PV generation, more than 1MW owned by community groups and community benefit funding exceeding £10m;
• A revolving loan fund targeted specifically at community energy projects that has supported 4 projects to date;
• Strong growth in the community energy sector with 19 formally constituted community energy groups.

Being shortlisted for a Green Energy Award is the latest in a series of “green energy” successes for the Council’s Future Economy Team which earlier this year won the Best Renewable Energy Efficiency Initiative Award at the APSE Awards and was awarded the Local Authority Partner Award at the national Community Energy Awards.

Welcoming news of the shortlisting Julian German, the Council’s cabinet member for economy and culture, said “Having established ourselves as leaders in the transition towards a low carbon economy, Cornwall Council is focused on ensuring that our changing energy system delivers benefits and opportunity for residents in terms of new income streams and high quality jobs and skills. With the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly European Structural Funds (funding from Europe to help improve the competitiveness of our economy), now in place Cornwall’s future looks bright”.

“I am very pleased to see the Council’s efforts being recognised and welcome the steps being taken to build a more resilient local economy.”

The shortlisted nominees will now go through to the final stage of judging, where an expert panel of judges, headed by Lord Robin Teverson, will select this year’s winners.  The winners of each category will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony at Bath’s historic Assembly Rooms on 25 November 2015.

Merlin Hyman, chief executive of Regen SW, said: “This year’s Green Energy Awards shortlist is an inspiring insight into the ingenuity and innovation that is putting the south west of England at the forefront of the green energy revolution. We are seeing businesses, local communities and public bodies”.