On Monday 7th October, Eco Dewi was invited to send representatives to attend a Capacity Building Day at Pembrokeshire County Hall, organised by LEAF; Local Energy Action Force, a Community Energy Pembrokeshire project. As well as members of the St. David’s project, there were individuals and project officers from sister LEAF projects in Tiers Cross and Tavernspite to name a couple. The event was led by the fantastic Ben Ferguson, the Welsh Government Energy Service Development Manager.
The day was a real eye opener in trying to work out the energy output of potential sustainable energy projects with some back to basics maths to test the old brain cells! By the end of the day terms like Coefficient of Performance, System Rated Capacity and KWhAC seemed like normal daily expressions. All good stuff to prepare us for planning our own projects though.
The groups considered different sized solar arrays to calculate energy output and then the reality of what that might actually power in a standard home. This started to give everyone an idea of how big or small a solar project might be required to power a few homes. Past experiences and learnings were shared by the different project teams, along with current plans and ideas. It was brilliant to hear about some local success stories, no matter how small, and it was really inspiring and envigorating to consider what we could achieve in the St. David’s Peninsula.
Massive thanks to Ben for leading this informative and fun training session and to Geraint Michael, LEAF Project Officer for the St. David’s Peninsula, for organising our attendance. There will be more training and visits over the coming 6 months so if you are interested in becoming a part of Eco Dewi or attending an event just drop us a note at: geraintleaf@gmail.com
