The Green Valleys

The Green Valleys is a Community Interest Company (CIC) that develops, installs and finances hydro electric systems for long term community benefit. The Green Valleys (TGV) aims to make the Brecon Beacons region a net exporter of energy.

TGV started out as a handful of committed individuals developing their own micro-hydro systems in the Brecon Beacons and became formalised as a CIC in the BGC year. TGV CIC now operates as a regional body with town and village community groups, each with their own carbon reduction programmes, as members. A team of directors is drawn from these members. The current directors possess valuable skills and experience in areas such: as policy; legal; finance; and community support, and these skills have helped the organisation become more structured and professionalised, with TGV now working towards a 6 year business plan.

Two of the directors have continued a service level agreement with Brecon Beacons National Park Authority to be seconded to TGV to work on the hydro element, and other directors give time voluntarily. Since the BGC year, TGV has also appointed a full time administrator (grant funded) and technical staff.

Sixteen hydro systems have been installed and over 100 viable sites surveyed in the Brecon Beacons so far, but only one system has been installed since the BGC year. Much of the last year has been spent finding a solution regarding the legal regulations surrounding use of state aid and access to feed-in tariffs (FiTs) through micro-hydro systems . Following legal advice, TGV has loaned the winnings from NESTA at a rate of 3% to TGV Hydro Ltd., a new company solely owned by TGV CIC. This means that TGV can employ staff and invest in hydros without falling foul of regulations, and profits made by TGV Ltd will go back to TGV CIC. Since this resolution TGV has begun to develop 13 new sites which are a mixture of community-owned, private owned and combined private-community ventures.

Currently TGV funds itself almost entirely through consultation and installation fees, but it has also approached commercial lenders such as Co-op, Triodos, CharityBank and Finance Wales. TGV passed a competency assessment by Finance Wales appointed hydro engineers, and now have a £500,000 draw down facility with Finance Wales and the option of a £2 million loan from CharityBank. The BGC prize was used to set up and fund TGV Hydro Ltd.

Due to heavy involvement in the legal and technical side, some of the community activities have taken a back seat over the last year, though TGV recently applied for grants to employ officers to work on the CIC’s allotments and woodland projects. TGV also invested in a carbon monitoring web-tool for households as a result of their experiences of monitoring carbon during the BGC, but have not yet had time to launch it.  Some member communities have gone on to do well on their own: Llangattock is now a CIC itself (though still affiliated to TGV), has been taking part in the British Gas Green Streets programme, and serves as a blueprint for the other communities affiliated to TGV.