Spring greetings from PUNL!

Joju Solar, who did a beautiful job installing our panels at St. Anne’s Church, have made a video about the project. We think it looks fab- let us know what you think!

You can find out more on Joju’s website http://www.jojusolar.co.uk/2017/03/28/church-solar-community-help/

Our first AGM will be held on Monday 23 January 2017 at Holly Lodge Community Centre,30 Makepeace Ave, Highgate, London N6 6HL.

All welcome, and we will be heading to The Star pub on Chester Road afterwards for a drink.

Agenda

1. Welcome/Apologies
2. Report from the Chair
3. Vote on the Resolutions contained in the Notice of AGM
   1. Appointment of Chair (Incumbent- Nikki Brain)
   2. Appointment of Secretary (Incumbent- Ben Pearce)
   3. Appointment of Treasurer (Incumbent- Adam Spence)
   4. Appointment of other Directors (Incumbent- Ian Grant)
4. Any other business
5. Adjournment

Appointment of Directors

The positions of Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Director are open to all to stand for. In the event of there being multiple candidates, appointment will be put to a majority vote.Role descriptions are as follows:

Chair

• Chairs monthly meetings of Power Up North London Core Goup
• Oversees the day- to- day running of the organisation working closely with other Directors
• Acts as a first point of contact for many external queries and represents the organisation at events and meetings
• Undertakes project work as needed
• Acts as a spokesperson promoting PUNL’s work and core values

 Treasurer

• Responsible for bookkeeping, invoicing and making payments for PUNL
• Leads on development of financial model and uses financial expertise to guide decision making on financial issues
• Leads on the financial aspects of issuing share offers and keeping up with legal and financial requirements of the organization
• Responsible for producing and submitting accounts on time

 Secretary

• Booking venues for Core Group, Board and General meetings
• Distributing agendas and minutes for Core Group, Board and General meetings
• Ensuring Treasurer submits accounts on time and all other legal requirements are satisfied

 Directors

• All Directors have legal responsibility for Power Up North London
• From April 2017 onwards Directors will meet quarterly to discuss strategic issues relating to the organisation and to assess the work of the Core Group

The Core Group

The Core Group is the lifeblood of PUNL and actively volunteer time in a range of areas from project management to communications to community engagement. Our Core Group is the reason we were able to deliver our first successful project in 2016. Whatever your strengths, we need help to take on new projects and scale up in the coming year. All that is needed is an enthusiasm for community energy!

However we would be especially grateful to hear from people with experience or an interest in:

• Marketing & Communications / Social media
• Community outreach and advice
• Fundraising
• Property law
• Project management
• Renewable energy

Please contact powerupnorthlondon@gmail.com with any questions and we hope to see you on the 23rd January.

PUNL Director Ben Pearce shares his view on why you should get involved with your local community energy project in 2017

You’ve joined the gym, given up booze, and exclusively eaten fruit and nuts for four days straight, but mysteriously, you don’t feel any happier. Deep down, you know that in two weeks you’ll be in the pub, on your third pint, scoffing some chips. But what if we told you that you could find purpose, could change the world, from within the four walls of a PUB!? How, you say? Community Energy, that’s how!

In the year that everyone is intent on convincing you that it was terrible to be alive, some good stuff actually did happen! For example, PUNL worked with the amazing people at St Anne’s Church and Joju Solar to install 19 kW of solar panels. This was all possible because 60 wonderful people in our community stumped up £30k to pay for the panels, which they will receive back over the next 20 years, with a bit of interest.

However, it is fair to say that this project couldn’t have happened without the core group of PUNL itself. We don’t do it for the praise by any stretch, but the whole group has an immense sense of pride and satisfaction at the way in which we were able to bring together so many people to create something beautiful and sustainable. It’s fair to say nothing beats the feeling of seeing a permanent beacon of hope in your community that you can feel happened as a result of your actions. It really does give you a sense of empowerment when (young) people are increasingly struggling to find purpose in life.

Our core group of 10 or so local residents, working in various different types of jobs. We have been meeting once a month to drive renewable energy projects forward in our community. The motives that we share are:

• We want to combat climate change
• We want to do this through positive action and believe in the power of social enterprise to do this; we have a shared ‘can do’ attitude.

It’s been an incredible journey so far for us – there have been multiple times at which it looked as if the one project we have to show for our work wouldn’t go ahead, but we’ve powered through together, with the help of others in our community and I think that resilience is something that we have taken into other walks of life. The other things we’ve done that most of us had never done before:

• Registered a company
• Won a £20k grant
• Raised £30k of community shares
• Received a round of applause from Ed Miliband
• Spoken about solar at events alongside founders of well established charities in esteemed venues
• Won planning permission
• Formed relationships with local Councillors
• Starred in a video with a proper camera
• Been to City Hall

Not to mention developed some wonderful friendships. None of us knew that much about renewable energy before we started, and the way we developed technical and financial knowledge along the way and are now able to share that with others, has been a big personal confidence boost and a great demonstration of what an effective team can do.

There’s so much potential for community energy – our share offer closed 10 days before it was scheduled to and there is support from across our community. In 2017, we have already booked in a number of exciting meetings with some potential new projects, but with our big ambitions to scale up community energy in North London, we could really do with some extra hands on deck in our core group to help us do more. Whatever your strengths, we need help to take on new projects and scale up in the coming year. All that is needed is an enthusiasm for community energy! However we would be especially grateful to hear from people with experience or an interest in:

• Marketing & Communications / Social media
• Community outreach and advice
• Fundraising
• Property law
• Project management
• Renewable energy

As we hope you can see above – it’s a hugely fulfilling and stimulating thing to be a part of and we do hope you would consider coming along to just one meeting to see what you think. If any of these areas (or others) interest you, please do get in touch via email or come to our next meeting in January (we’ll publish the details on the website).

And perhaps you’ll be able to look back at 2017 with pride and happiness – a resolution that will really make you feel better about yourself!

Thank you to everyone came along to our event on Saturday 26 October to explore What’s Next for Power Up North London?

Now that our first solar project is complete, Power Up North London would like to invite everyone to a public meeting to discuss: what next?

We’ll be meeting on Saturday 29th October from 2-4pm at Ackland Burghley School to hear from Power Up North London and other community energy projects, followed by breakout discussions where we will be asking everyone to share their ideas for what PUNL should be working on over the next year.

From solar to energy efficiency and LED lighting, there are still a lot of options for community energy despite the changes to Government policy, and we know with the enthusiasm of everyone involved, we can move on with new projects.

Whether you are currently involved with PUNL or are brand new to us, we invite you to join us to share your ideas and help us to move on to the next step of our journey

Agenda:

2pm Arrival

2.10pm Introduction from Meric Apac, Cabinet Members for Sustainability, Camden Council

2.15pm Introductory session: The future of community energy

Speakers:

Power Up North London

Alex Hartley, SELCE

Jesse Scharf, 10:10

Aoife O’ Leary, Pure Leapfrog

3pm Workshop session

This will be a participatory session where groups will choose an area to focus on and discuss in more depth some areas PUNL could focus on over the next year. Speakers and members of the PUNL team will be on hand to facilitate but really this is about everyone bringing new ideas forward.

3.45pm Workshop feedback and closing comments

4.00pm We will be going for a drink to continue the conversation at the Lord Palmerston pub and hope you can join us!

To register for the event please book your free ticket here

All the best,

The PUNL Team

Thanks to everyone who invested, the hard work of the PUNL crew and the amazing workmanship by Joju Solar, our installation is up and running at St. Anne’s Church! Thank you to everyone who was involved in making our first project a reality!

We’ve entered a competition from the M&S energy fund to install a battery storage system alongside our panels at St. Anne’s Church. this would allow the Church to use the energy in the evenings too, so we don’t have to sell as much back to the grid.  Please click here and click the “vote for project to win” button at the top of the page to vote and help us take our project to the next level!

Last night we closed our first share offer 9 days early after being oversubscribed. We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has invested. This means we will be able to install 60 solar panels totalling 19kW at St. Anne’s in September. Find out more about the project here

What happens next?

We have agreed with local installers Joju solar that work will go ahead on the week commencing 12 September, so that we can have the panels connected and up and running by the 29 September deadline.

We will be organising a meetup to view the work being done, and a celebratory drink, during the installation. More information to follow!

All the best,

The PUNL team

Our community share offer is now live on Crowdfunder!

Having won planning approval after a fantastic community campaign, we have launched our first Community Share Offer to raise £30,100 to install 19kW of solar PV at St. Anne’s Church, Highgate!

Find out more at https://powerupnorthlondon.org/invest or head to http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/PUNL

We are incredibly excited to announce that our planning application for a solar project at St. Anne’s Church has been approved by Camden Council!

After initially being told the application may be rejected, we are delighted that the planners reconsidered, taking the social and environmental benefits of the project into account and concluding that the project should go ahead. This certainly wouldn’t have happened with out the 100+ supporting comments we received from people in the local area- so THANK YOU to everyone who commented on the application!

Our next step is to raise £30,000 through a Community Share Offer, allowing you to invest in the project. Learn more and register your interest here