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Local residents are benefitting from community payments from the Sawmills solar farm in Devon with new super-fast broadband and free solar-generated electricity.
The 6.5MW farm in Ashcombe was completed last year and has provided the local primary school with free solar-generated electricity from panels on the roof, saving 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. It has also secured new superfast broadband for the rural community.
Gatehouse ACE academy primary school had been trying to raise funds for a rooftop solar scheme since 2013 and finally connected an array to the grid in July 2015 using funds from Sawmills. Children and visitors to the school are able to view the energy being generated from a display panel that has been installed in the main reception.
The annual funding is provided by the project developer Solstice Renewables and Belltown Power which acquired the project in 2014 and now operates it. The fund is administered by Ashcombe Village Club to support social and environmental projects in the area.
Solstice Renewables director Giovanni Maruca said: “We are so pleased… our solar farm community funding has been achieved so successfully.
“These are great examples of how well-developed distributed renewable generation projects can make a real difference to the work and social lives of people in rural areas.”
Solstice also established an annual educational fund which is allocated to Gatehouse ACE Academy for field trips to the solar park and in-class educational resources linked to the National Curriculum and related to climate change and renewable energy.
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