by Karen Arbuckle | Nov 10, 2021 | News, Top Stories
Edenderry Village Energy, NI’s newest community energy initiative exploring the potential for a community owned low-carbon heating system NICE was only too happy to offer support to residents from Edenderry Village wishing to develop a new community owned district heating scheme. Edenderry is located on the outskirts of Belfast. It is an old linen mill village beside River Lagan, approximately 200 homes, currently heated by a mix of oil and gas. The village locality and compact size present an ideal position for the community of Edenderry to utilise natural and sustainable resources available right at its doorstep. OSNI Spatial Orthophotography Map – Edenderry Village OSNI Spatial Fusion Basemap – Edenderry Village Residents see an opportunity for the village to make a just transition from fossil fuel heating to a low-carbon heating system and want to develop a district heating energy scheme that is owned, run by, and for, the community. One that will alleviate risk of fuel poverty, provide a stable and dependable source of heat that is not subject to increasing fuel prices and to eliminate need for harmful fossil fuel boilers thereby improving local air quality for example. Edenderry wanted to establish a community owned organisation to develop, build and manage a decarbonised district heating scheme for the whole village. A community renewable energy system that provides hot water and heating from a central geothermal heat pump system which produces three to four times more heat energy than the electricity input, to as many homes as possible, and which offers affordability for residents and also retains revenues within the community to reinvest in other village renewable energy...
by Karen Arbuckle | Sep 23, 2019 | News, Top Stories
Re: NICE Annual General Meeting 9th October 2019 You are cordially invited to NICE Annual General Meeting 2019. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, the 9th October 2019 in the Agape Centre, 238 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 6GF, commencing 6.30 pm. This year we will be holding a joint AGM together with Drumlin Wind Energy Co-Operative. Some members of NICE are also shareholders in Drumlin and it is also a great networking opportunity to meet up with like minded people. We are delighted to have engaged two guest speakers for the evening from Northern Ireland Environmental Link (NIEL) and N.I. Forest Schools. We look forward to receiving an update from Craig McGuicken, CEO NIEL on our local evironmental agenda and Forest Schools will give a short presentation on the initiative they have been running in collaboration with Drumlin. AGM registrations and refreshments commence @ 6.30 pm the meeting will start at 7:00 pm SHARP beginning with the information session followed by Drumlin and then NICE business sessions. We would be grateful if you could please advise of your attendance in order to facilitate catering & other arrangements by sending us an email to shares@nicommunityenergy.org. At the AGM NICE membership is invited to discuss its achievements, the end of year accounts, the election of the Board and vote for the proposed resolutions. The draft Financial Statements to the 31st March 2019, the proposed resolutions and the annual report will be available in due course. Board election – According to NICE rules (Rule 64), each year one third of the elected Directors is required to retire and, if they decide...
by Karen Arbuckle | May 1, 2016 | News, Top Stories
On 25th April 2016, Mornington Community Project hosted NICE2 Official Share Offer Launch High demand for low cost electricity from a host of third sector organisations has prompted Northern Ireland’s only solar energy co-operative to launch a second major Community Share offer. NICE2 Share Offer Document. Almost 40 community organisations have expressed an interest in this ambitious solar energy project that will see their electricity bills slashed in half. Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE) today launched NICE2, its second community share offer to raise £130,000, which will enable them to install solar panels free of charge for up to ten charitable and community organisations. Last year NICE – Northern Ireland’s only solar energy co-operative – raised an impressive £150,000 with its first community share issue enabling them to install solar panels to benefit 13 organisations. One of those organisations is the Mornington Community project, hosted today’s launch. It is a member of the co-operative and benefited from free solar panels last year. Heather Carey, Board member of the Mornington Community project, said: “As Mornington continues to grow and expand, the benefits of reduced energy costs means the organisation is able to save and continue to invest in the people of the Lower Ormeau, now and for years to come.” NICE Director Karen Arbuckle said the co-operative, which was launched almost exactly a year ago, has made a big impact in the third sector. She added: “Thirty seven organisations have expressed an interest this time round. Because we were able to achieve so much last year it has given us the incentive to go ahead with another project. There is huge...
by Karen Arbuckle | Apr 3, 2016 | News, Top Stories
The “NICE2” project aims to further add up to 10 solar panel installations at between 4 & 12 Kwp each on the roofs of charities and social enterprises in Northern Ireland. At a recent General Meeting, NICE members supported the Board proposal for a second share offer. Initial financial projections have shown the financial viability of the current plan and projected a potential 4% return on members’ shares plus full share capital repayment. Our plan is to issue the share document mid-April 2016 and complete the potential installations in advance of yet again another policy change at the end of September 2016 which will decrease the ability of communities to own and carry out renewables projects. We have attached a pledge form for your attention which will help us measure the level of interest in the new share offer. If you prefer, you can complete the pledge online at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DHXBFMN . It would be ideal if you could send us the form back by the 11th April 2016. Please feel also free to pass it to anyone you know who may be interested to support the project and become a member of NICE. Thank...
by Karen Arbuckle | Jul 10, 2015 | News, Top Stories
main photo: Jo Bird, Co-Operative Alternatives & NICE Member & Peter Caldwell, Manager YMCA Londonderry. Just before the bank holiday weekend NICE appointed installers arrived at YMCA Londonderry as scheduled and have mounted the 12kW solar pv array! Wiring and commissioning will take place after the bank hols. This is NICE 6th installation, free of charge to this Northern Ireland 3rd sector community organisation. As with all our organisation members this is a great facility which has just commenced doing some updating and extension work. This busy centre will undoubtedly utilise the energy their array will generate and their energy cost with Payless Power by generating and savings benefits are already being reinvested in their community building! WIN WIN. Thanks again Jo for climbing the scaffolding with Peter for these great aerial photos done again by Jack Farrell, Hive Studios, Derry – much...
by Karen Arbuckle | Jun 19, 2015 | News, Top Stories
NICE SHARE OFFER NOW CLOSED! We have done it. Through our community share offer NICE surpassed its capital investment target of £150k. The Board of Directors implemented the shares allocation revised policy (rev. @ time of the last share extension) ‘first come first served’. We can now confirm our share offer is officially closed @ a grand total investment of £150,450. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the local community for their interest and support in NICE, N.I.’s 1st solar community energy society and can assure you and our members that this finance has already been put to good work as reported over the last number of weeks. We also wish to thank Community Shares who with the support of the Building Change Trust helped us bring this pioneering community energy society to our local community. For those who missed out on an opportunity to become a NICE member – this is just our first phase project, please do continue to keep an eye on our website and social media pages for news of our future initiatives and possible future share offers! You can also subscribe to receive our E-News a link will be posted to our website in the coming days – please bear with us as we bring our website up-to-date to reflect our developments and achievements....
