The team behind the Lichfield district's new community energy co-operative, Southern Staffordshire Community Energy (SSCE), has announced its first solar power project, The co-op has reached agreement with St Giles Hospice in Whittington to allow it to install 200 solar panels with a peak electricity generating power of 50kw that will save the hospice around £4,000 a year on energy bills.

SSCE has been set up by two of the area's leading environmental groups, Whittington and Fisherwick Environment Group (WFEG) and Low Carbon Lichfield (LoCaL) with the support of the District Council. They aim to reduce dependency on diminishing fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions while benefiting local communities and residents.

Finance for the panels will come from a community share issue offering the opportunity to buy shares with a minimum value of £250 and a maxium of £20,000. Interest will be paid on the shares at a level which will be announced at the launch events on Thursday 10th November when a full share prospectus will be made available. The prospectus will be also be available from the website www.ssce.co.uk from Friday 11th November. Shareholders will be able to elect the Board and decide the future policy.

There will be two public events to launch the share issue on Thursday 10th November - at St Giles Hospice, Fisherwick Road Whittington at 6pm and Lichfield Methodist Church, Tamworth St at 8pm. Speakers from SSCE and their advisers will outline the schemes and answer questions.

The scheme will have significant benefits for the Hospice, providing savings of around £4000 a year on energy bills. It will also have benefits for the environment, saving around 20 tonnes of CO2 per annum. In addition, SSCE hopes to make a small surplus which it will put back into further similar projects aimed at promoting renewable energy or energy-saving.

The scheme is made possible by the Feed-in Tariff scheme introduced by the Government in April 2010 which means that solar PV owners receive payments for all the electricity that the panels generate. SSCE will retain the FiTs to enable to pay interest to shareholders and cover other costs like maintenance and insurance.

Mike Kinghan, chair of SSCE, said: "We are delighted that St Giles Hospice and Whittington's Village Hall have agreed to lease us their roofs for this pioneering enterprise. Their forward-looking attitude means that together we will be able to save a total of around 24 tonnes of carbon per annum and lead a revolution in community-owned energy generation across our area to make us less dependent on imported fossil fuels." 

Peter Holliday, Chief Executive, of St Giles Hospice commented: "We are proud to be working with Southern Staffordshire Community Energy on this inspirational scheme. It benefits our organisation and patients by saving money on our electricity usage while helping protect the environment. We could not have afforded a solar power system ourselves so this is an ideal way for us to benefit from renewable energy."