Blackshaw Head-based Pennine Community Power has won a grant of £30,000 from Village SOS, part of the Big Lottery Fund. The grant will part-fund a 10kW Bergey community wind turbine, to be erected on a 12 metre lattice tower at Blackshaw Head. It recently received conditional planning permission from Calderdale Council.

BEAT wind turbine will look like this

“We are over the moon with this grant,” says Ashley Sharp, one of the founding directors of Pennine Community Power. “The community wind turbine is just one of several projects we are working on. The grant is a huge boost to our work and I would like to thank everyone who has helped making this possible.”

Pennine Community Power is a new initiative of Blackshaw Environmental Action Team (BEAT) to develop community-based renewable energy.

As well as Ashley Sharpe, Pennine Community Power’s other founding directors are Paul Willson, Mark Simmonds and Finn Jensen.The directors have already agreed and sent the financial rules for Pennine Community Power to the Financial Services Authority, to register the company as an Industrial and Provident Society.

Pennine Community Power will plough all profits back into projects to make the community more sustainable. The community enterprise will be democratically controlled and in the next few months residents will be encouraged to invest and participate in the company.

“We still need to raise another £30,000 through community shares – a bigger hill to climb,” says Finn Jensen.

For more information about BEAT and Pennine Community Power e-mail finn.jensen@rocketmail.com.