History
History
Grannell Community Energy was formed in 2016, named after the river that runs through Cribyn, near Lampeter, close to the site of the turbine and home to some of our volunteers.
Our group came together to help progress plans for a small wind turbine on the Evans’ family farm, who have been farming beef and sheep in the area for generations. We set up as a community benefit society that would take ownership of the turbine, generating a surplus to support local services as well as tackling the climate emergency and making the rural economy more resilient.
After the project was granted planning consent in 2017, we set about raising the funding to build and connect the turbine to the grid. In 2018 we launched our first community share offer through Sharenergy. This raised £368,406, a good result at a time when there were many other political and economic distractions. A loan from the Development Bank for Wales plus grant funding from the Welsh Government covered the remaining finance.
We found a good second-hand Enercon E48 wind turbine in the Netherlands, secured pre-accreditation for the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) with Ofgem and negotiated a Power Purchase Agreement for the electricity – all of which ensured the project’s viability.
By July 2019 we were ready to begin construction, facing a pretty tight deadline from Ofgem to qualify for the last FiT accreditations. Our contractors rose magnificently to the challenges of a demanding schedule and some typically Welsh weather, and in the space of a week in October the turbine components were lifted into place.
Since the turbine was commissioned it has generated over 5 million kWh of electricity.
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