What would be needed to decarbonise a whole village?. This is the question we are looking at in the village of Littlebury. Reaching net zero carbon emissions will require a huge change in the way that our energy is produced and distributed, including much more localised energy generation, and far greater focus on energy efficiency. In 2021, Littlebury Parish Council, along with Uttlesford District Council and Essex County Council expressed an interest in developing a Community Energy Plan to investigate how a village could transition from mainly oil based heating to clean, renewable energy.With funding primarily from Uttlesford District Council, community groups and volunteers have come together to map out options and start taking steps towards a low carbon future. Littlebury Energy Project is running multiple initiatives to look at increasing energy efficiency in village homes, assess community heating and provide information on best poractices to villagers.
The Littlebury Energy Project has developed extensive information resources for the village through our website including a knowledge base (https://lep.swce.co.uk/category/casestudies/, https://lep.swce.co.uk/suppliers-and-equipment/) , regular communication on energy issues via the village magazine (https://lep.swce.co.uk/category/village-views/) and open days, and assistance to villagers for options for improvement and grant funding (https://lep.swce.co.uk/grants-funding/) . We provide thermal imaging cameras to the village. We have trained two individuals to provide home energy and retrofit assessments. We have recently completed a feasibility study assessing the practicality of a community heat network in the village against the concept of Heat Pumps for every individual property (https://lep.swce.co.uk/cef/). Moving forward from this assessment that showed a heat network was unlikely to be financially viable and that the individual Heat Pump solution was preferable, we are now looking at options for migration to low carbon alternatives such as ASHP’s, and local energy generation from solar or wind turbines.
