Our energy, our future
We’ve felt a series of dramatic price shocks to our energy supplies recently.
Wars in Ukraine and Iran have disrupted oil and gas supplies and our electricity bills (even for green electricity) have shot up as well.
The wind and sun didn’t get more expensive, it’s because electricity prices are legally linked to wholesale gas prices. It sets you thinking. That’s crazy. We have wind and sun here in Suffolk so couldn’t we make use of them without covering the countryside in massive solar farms?
It turns out that it might well be possible…
We could have a village-led project to generate the electricity Charsfield needs, now and into the future — locally, fairly, and on our own terms.
Where we are now:
Charsfield Community Energy was set up by Charsfield Parish Council to explore if and how our village could generate its own electricity — enough, in time, to meet 100% of that which Charsfield uses.
A feasibility study is underway, commissioned through a Community Energy grant and conducted by expert, independent consultants Locogen. It will report in October 2026.
The first step is to assess current and future electricity needs for the village. An accurate assessment will help determine the optimal design for energy generation, respecting our landscape, our budgets and the ecology of the area.
Your help to build that energy use picture of the homes in the village would be really appreciated. Could you take a few minutes to complete Locogen’s on-line survey? Your data will be handled with complete confidentiality and we, in the village will only get amalgamated data on the overall picture.
The study will look at a mix of approaches to meeting those identified needs, including ground-mounted solar, agri-voltaic systems that share land with farming, and small-scale wind.
These are really early days for exploring possibilities. Absolutely nothing is decided yet. This is a community project, that will be shaped by and for the whole community.
Don’t forget that survey!
Here’s the link as a QR code, it will work on your phone too.
