Solar Farm Performance In the previous quarter, July to September, production was slightly below projections by 0.77%. July was the worst performing month with unseasonably poor weather resulting in a 9.35% underperformance on projections. However, August and September exceeded expectations by 8.76% and 0.31% respectively. Despite varying sunlight levels, our sites operated well without any major technical issues. Community Impact In our most recent October round of community grant funding, HECE supported the Napton Environmental Action Team by funding a thermal imaging camera for surveying heat losses in local buildings. Additionally we dedicated £2,500 each to the RSPCA Coventry for their Pet Food to Food Banks project and Hampton Manga Pre-school for crucial improvements to their outdoor area. HECE also contributed £3,600 towards establishing a new Community Fridge and Café in Bidford on Avon. Applications are reviewed quarterly. If you, or an organisation you know are looking for extra funding support, click here to visit our Community Grant Funding Page. Introducing our 'Solar Soft Loan' scheme HECE are pleased to announce the launch of 'Solar Soft Loans' for community organisations and schools! Our aim is to help organisations that would not have the funds to do it themselves, to install solar panels, LED lighting and other energy saving measures. To find out about how Solar Soft Loans work, click here. You can download a copy of the Autumn 2023 newsletter below.

HECE are pleased to announce the launch of 'Solar Soft Loans' for community organisations and schools! Our aim is to help organisations that would not have the funds to do it themselves, to install solar panels, LED lighting and other energy-saving measures. Learn More: For detailed insights into how solar soft loans work, please visit our dedicated Solar Soft Loan Webpage.

Performance update In the months from July 22 - June 23, the solar array generated 15,187 MWh, enough energy to power over 5,000 homes for a year. A big contributor to these high generation levels was April - June 23, with the sites generating 5.48% higher than predictions as a result of strong irradiance levels. Community Benefit Fund projections As a result of favourable power sales agreements, forecasts estimate that HECE's surplus income will exceed £1 million within the next 3 years. These surplus funds will be distributed as community grants to alleviate fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and empower the local community's journey to Net Zero. We will notify the Heart of England Community Energy shareholders and supporters when the funding rounds are next open. If you have an idea ready to share, please express your interest by emailing HECE. Great Big Green Week - site visit As part of Stratford-upon-Avon’s Great Big Green Week (which featured community events across 10 days) Heart of England provided a site visit for the local community. This was a great opportunity to raise awareness about community energy, and was the first time on a solar farm for many! We hope to provide more awareness raising opportunities in the local area. You can download a copy of the Summer 2023 newsletter below.

Heart of England Community Energy (HECE) fund projects that work to reduce fuel poverty in their local area and overseas. An annual beneficiary of HECE are Solar Aid, who work to improve access to electricity in rural sub-Saharan Africa by providing solar-powered lights for communities. Read on to find out more about Solar Aid, and the impact Heart of England made for rural African communities in 2022-23. Who are SolarAid SolarAid is an international charity founded in 2006 to combat poverty and climate change. Through their social enterprise, SunnyMoney, they provide access to solar lights in Malawi and Zambia to help catalyse solar markets with renewable light. This allows money to be reinvested back into our work, encourages job creation and ensures money stays in the local economy. Distributing solar lights allows communities to ‘leapfrog’ nationwide grid electrification, which is unlikely to ever reach the rural landscapes of sub-saharan African communities. Instead, solar lights are safe, clean and affordable. They are a small, but smart innovation that provide hours of light in the evening so families can earn, learn and feel safe after dark. The solar lights often replace kerosene lamps which gives benefit multiply by reducing carbon pollution, improving air quality, making homes safer (at less risk of fire) and improving the quality of light so children can study for longer. Supporting SolarAid Heart of England support the work of Solar Aid, which provides clean and safe light to communities across Africa. SolarAid’s mission aligns with that of Heart of England Community Energy as they work to eradicate fuel poverty and hardship. In 2022 – 23, HECE supported SolarAid’s Mayi Walas (Shining Mothers) project. Their donation supported the training of 20 Mayi Walas , distributing 200 solar lights and reaching over 1,000 people. Who are Mayi Walas? The Mayi Walas are women who sell solar products to local communities. The women are trained and supported by programmes coordinated by SolarAid, before distributing the products to rural communities. The groups purchase lamps at bulk discount prices and sell them to customers for a profit. As women are the main users of light in homes, Mayi Walas understand their customers' needs. Group members often have strong social connections with their community and customers, so can support them throughout their ownership of the solar products. For more details about SolarAid, the Mayi Walas and how Heart of England Community Energy’s donation was used in the last year, please read the report below. .

Heart of England Community Energy have recently provided emergency donations to three local organisations in response to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Act On Energy, Citizens Advice South Warwickshire and Stratford-upon-Avon Foodbank all received donations to help support households experiencing hardship or fuel poverty in South Warwickshire. Act On Energy received £26,500 to contribute to emergency boiler repairs, fuel vouchers and small energy efficiency measures in households which are experiencing severe fuel poverty. Citizens Advice South Warwickshire were allocated £7,500. The donation enables the organisation to help those in hardship by distributing food vouchers, school uniforms and white goods as well as helping with the cost of energy bills and utilities. Stratford Upon Avon Foodbank received £3,000 to top up their provisions for families in need, which are sadly insufficient for their current demand. This donation will provide enough food to feed 63 families (with a family food parcel value around £47.60). The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect households across the county, leaving people struggling to pay for everyday items and unable to save for costly repairs.

Heart of England Community Energy has had an update on the first 6 months of the Act on Energy Complex Case Worker project which we are funding. Act on Energy has provided 70 home visits, and 60 intensive web/phone support sessions to fuel poor customers. Facilitating the installation of over 200 fuel-saving items, including draught proofing, radiator foils, and energy-efficient light bulbs. Facilitating cumulative financial savings from energy use reductions, with an estimated total of £4,170 per annum. Act on Energy has educated 13 front-line workers on the links between warm homes and energy efficiency and its benefits for health. By the end of the project, they expect this number to be well over 100. The distribution of this knowledge is key to ensuring this area of deprivation gets the attention it deserves, which in turn will save lives. Part of their approach has been to supply toolkits, of which they have delivered 130 already. These toolkits detail key behavioural changes individuals can make to reduce their fuel bills, including only boiling the water they need, washing clothes at lower temperatures, and highlighting the potential for application to further funding, one of which being the warm home discount. From their feedback, they believe these will have prompted £24,000 in total annual savings.

Citizens Advice South Warwickshire (CASW) is a local charity that provides free, confidential and impartial advice and information on a wide range of subjects. Heart of England Community Energy provides money to fund admin for their grants program. The grants finance necessities, furniture, clothing, heating, and household appliances, all of which make a significant positive impact on the lives of individuals facing financial hardships due to adverse circumstances. HECE's support pays for 64% of the hours worked by the charity’s admin team, who identify and facilitate grant funding. As such our community energy group has directly enable the granting of £10,523 in essential items and appliances for 46 residents in hardship. The washing machines, clothing, cookers, and fridges we have helped provide to those in need will have made what has been a financially tough winter a bit more bearable.

We made a donation of £695 to Stratford Upon Avon Foodbank. This funding enabled the purchase of 174 cans of ham, as well as some other items necessary to complete their 459 Christmas Hampers. The food bank informed us that the ham was enough to feed around 330 individuals, thus our contribution helped to improve the Christmas season of that many people.

Team SolarAid would like to say a massive thank you for all your support in 2022. We really appreciate the support from Heart of England Community Energy and their investors. With your grant of £3,000, we were able to support women to become thriving solar entrepreneurs in Malawi, in areas that have never been reached by solar power before. We couldn’t have done it without you. Best wishes and have a lovely festive period ❄️ If you are interested in learning more about the project, please follow this link to a Webinar recording with their team.

Thanks to supporters like the Heart of England Community Energy Limited, SolarAid were able to launch the programme in 2021, recruiting the first 41 groups of Mayi Walas. The team in Malawi have just been out to chat (and dance!) with the very first groups, to learn about how becoming a Mayi Wala has impacted their lives: Magret Nkhata lives in Imran village with her four children. She said ‘My dream is to continue the solar business so that everyone should have access. The whole area should have access to light, that is my dream.’ Beatrix Maini lives in Nyama with her children. She is happy with the solar power the programme has brought to her village ‘Once the solar lights arrived, the children have been able to study and they are performing well. Their future will be bright. Thanks to your generous donation of £2,500, 2 groups of Mayi Walas were established, creating entrepreneurship opportunities for women to bring safe, clean solar light to their communities. The team is currently recruiting more Mayi Wala groups across Malawi. Over the next three years, this programme will support 230 groups across 25 of 28 districts in Malawi. To find out more about SolarAid and how to donate please see: https://solar-aid.org/

£750,000 raised to complete our long-term financing At the end of 2021 HECE launched a solar bond offer via Ethex to raise up to £1.1million and complete our long-term financing. In February 2022 the target was reduced to £750,000. HECE no longer needed to raise the full amount as, subsequent to launching the offer, we secured power purchase agreements that have further improved our future cash flows. The reduced target was quickly met and our long-term financing is now complete. The 2021 bond offer has a term of 15 years paying 4% gross interest annually, but interest payments and return of capital are not guaranteed. THE OFFER IS NOW CLOSED. Investors in our 2018 bond offer will be repaid as planned at the end of April 2022, having been paid the full target interest each year. Our community solar array, made up of over 55,000 solar panels at Drayton Manor Farm on the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon, was bought into community ownership in 2018. The community buy-back was funded by two community investment offers which raised £600,000 in community investment alongside £16.5 million of bank loans and social investment. John Stott, volunteer Director of Heart of England Community Energy said, “Since commissioned, our solar array has generated 57 million kilowatt hours of electricity from the sun, provided £66,000 of funding to support local environmental and fuel poverty initiatives, and our community investors have been paid interest at 5 to 6% per year as offered in our 2017/18 share and bond offer documents. This latest community bond offer is the last piece in the jigsaw of securing the long-term funding for the solar array.” HECE’s solar arrays generate over £1.6 million per year in revenue. As well as covering operating and finance costs (including interest and capital repayments to our share and bond investors), we expect to generate at least £3.5 million over the solar farms’ 25-year operating life to support local community initiatives. John Stott adds, “It has taken years of work by the volunteer board and our advisors but the legacy for local communities makes it worthwhile. Our community solar array will generate green electricity for at least the next 20 years, and income to support our transition to a low carbon future.”

2021 has been a challenging year for many in our local communities. In the build up to Christmas, we once again made a donation to Stratford Upon Avon Foodbank towards Christmas hampers including Christmas puddings/cakes, tinned food and personal hygiene products. Heart of England continues to support Citizens Advice South Warwickshire to help their vital support services to those hit hard by the Corona virus crisis and recession. Another donation to Solar Aid has been made to support their crucial work. Caroline Sampson, Trustee and Secretary of Stratford upon Avon Foodbank said: "On behalf of the Trustees and volunteers of Stratford upon Avon Foodbank, I should like to thank you for your kindness in donating £729.79 to our charity for our Christmas Hamper project. This project was a great success and we were able to distribute a total of 404 hampers, benefiting 1,109 individuals (548 adults and 561 children)." Heart of England Community Energy's 2021 solar bond offer has now raised over £450,000. To find out more please visit: https://www.ethex.org.uk/invest/heart-of-england-community-energy