This evening, BHESCo (Brighton and Hove’s Community Energy Services Cooperative) is hosting an exciting event for Brighton residents interested in community energy.

BHESCo have just launched their new share offer. This is your chance to help raise £1M to fund up to 10 community renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Sussex.

It’s a fantastic opportunity to find out about the achievements of BHESCO so far, the renewable energy and energy efficiency projects already in progress, and how you can earn an incredibly good rate of return on your savings by investing in a local cooperative that will pave the way for energy groups across the country.

The event takes place at Brighthelm Community Centre from 6pm till 9pm. There’s a presentation at 6pm and another at 7:30pm. Details here.

Community energy should be at the very heart of our energy system. However, at the moment, Government policy is holding back the potential for people power in Brighton and elsewhere.

That’s why, in my response to the Queen’s Speech yesterday, I said:

“Government should recognise and act on the huge potential for locally owned energy, with has benefits such as lower energy prices, new jobs and skills. One problem is that energy market rules currently make it impossible for community groups to sell the wind, solar and hydro that they generate directly to nearby homes. If they could do so, it would give the sector an enormous boost and really help to reduce fuel prices further. I hope that the Communities Secretary, who was a great advocate of decentralised energy in the past, will work with his equivalent in the Department of Energy and Climate Change to make that happen.”

I’ll continue to work closely with BHESCo as well as Brighton Energy Coop and other community energy organisations to push for the changes we need to see cooperative and community energy flourish.

If you can’t get along to the BHESCo event this evening, you can find out more on their website and sign this petition from 10:10 to call for the changes to Government policy needed so we can all buy clean power direct from a local energy co-op, for a price that matched our budget.