Harbury e-Wheels, the registered charity founded and run by residents of the village, has recently been awarded a Stage 2 grant of £98,000 from the Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF). The funds will allow us to develop the project, Harbury Future Energy, to be fully ‘business ready’, although it will not cover the capital costs of installing the unusual vertical axis wind turbine and solar panels to deliver energy to charge points for electric cars for the benefit of residents of the village.
A year ago the project was awarded a Stage 1 grant to assess the feasibility of the project. The findings of the report by Greenwatt Technology won a green light for the project team to apply for a Stage 2 grant. The application was successful and £98,000 has been allocated to Harbury Future Energy to develop the project further. The project aims to capture and store the the energy in wind and sun to mitigate the effects of climate change in our community. An innovative vertical axis wind turbine, delivering 7kW, and a 10kWp solar array will be installed with an energy storage battery to contribute to the energy needed to power charge points for the two electric cars of Harbury e-Wheels and for public use in the village. The facility will also connect to the grid to draw additional energy on a green tariff and return surplus energy. In due course we aspire to being able to produce hydrogen through electrolysis for use in tomorrow’s hydrogen powered vehicles in readiness for the transition to hydrogen technology.