Fundraising Beats its Target

We raised a total of £18,331, which was £2,000 more than our target.

£16,331 via the Crowdfund Cotswolds Spacehive platform and £2,000 directly from Somerford Keynes Parish Council.

In total, we had 54 backers. Click here to see the full list of who backed via Crowdfund Cotswolds. This included:

– Two councils – Cotswold District Council and Somerford Keynes Parish Council

– Two local businesses – Lower Mill Estate and Cotswold Lakes Brew Co.

– The Lower Mill Estate Homeowners Association

– Many individuals with donations ranging from £2 to an amazingly generous £1,000

We are really grateful to all our fantastic backers. 

1. Paying Locogen, a community solar specialist consultancy to help us with a feasibility study to find a suitable location for our community solar farm and a business plan. This is now underway.

2. Cover the cost of setting up Thames Head Energy, initially as an Ltd company and then converting to a Community Benefits Society (CBS) and later setting up a charity to distribute income from the solar farm. This setup also enables other activities including our community home solar, batteries and EV charger scheme and heat pump/heat network planning.

3. Money towards the Solar Farm planning permission and setup of the community share offer – this will require additional fundraising and a possible “rotating loan”, but the funds we have raised already will give us a headstart.