TECs launched its full community share offer in October for the installation at Dyrons site at Newton Abbot College. Already fully subscribed before the closing date.  We were very pleased with the support given to this offer by TECs members , current and new, and from the College itself.

Thank you to everyone who bought our community shares. We couldn’t do it without you.

TECs board meets  Newton Abbot College Eco Council, Business Studies and EMAT Trust in February 2022

Promising initial meetings to explore collaboration around ENERGY. College’s Eco Council identified ENERGY topic as key to achieving ‘Eco Schools’ status.

Business Studies plans to link with TECs to provide energy-saving micro business concepts for students.

The TECs share offer later in 2022 provides a further oppotunity to focus on the key objectives the Eco Council has set itself.

Engagement is the name of the game. Bring it on!

WOW , finally in August 2021, together with Newton Abbot College management team, we made it through the Dept for Education hoops. Thanks to everyone’s persistence and patience we have our seond TECs college installation. Many thanks to Nick Hill at Newton Abbot College and Steve and team from our local installers Callidus. Hip hip horray.

The project was made possible by the financial support of TECs members who agreed to fund the installation.  The full community share offers gets off the ground later in 2022.

Next step is engagement around ENERGY with the college’s students and staff led by their Eco Council. Watch this space.

We are so pleased to have helped to employ Flavio Ford as The Wildlife Warden Co-ordinator for the Action on Climate in Teignbridge group (ACT) He will be tasked with finding and supporting volunteer wildlife wardens throughout our district. Audrey Compton of ACT says, “Our aim is for all 54 Teignbridge parishes and Newton Abbot wards to have one or two Wildlife Wardens by the end of 2021.” Bold ambitions.

Their actions will address the Ecological Emergency declared by Teignbridge District Council. We wish them all the best with this project.

Another successful Members’ Session on the topical issue of Electric Vehicles. Prof Joules and Dr Watt were on hand for an EV Question Time. Wide-ranging questions from members who are all at different stages in their research. There was plenty of discussion about EV range and range anxiety and about charging for renewable and non-renewable sources , as well as the charging infrastructure. Niche areas related to tow bars and an EV large enough to accommodate a mobility scooter.

Thanks to Jules and Helen for hosting.

Comprehensive TECs EV material can be accessed in the documents section of the website

We though you might want to watch what it feels like to toast a slice of bread!

Click here to view the video.

TECs Team spent two hours discussing all things energy with MP Anne-Marie Morris. Our chance to plug the central message – put carbon reduction at the heart of all government policy and decisions. We highlighted the significant hurdles for community energy caused directly by government policies. Fruitful exchanges with plenty of time devoted to our discussions.

TECs’ progress in Teignbridge was also an important focus of our meeting.

Met Martin Wrigley Lib-Dem candidate and TDC Portfolio Holder for Communities in August. Wide-ranging discussions around energy use and energy policies. Engagement with energy within TDC also a focus. Further talks proposed.

2019 a bumper year for applications and requests for advice. The TECs team has been to Newton Abbot College,  Kenn Centre, Teign Valley Hall, Dunsford Village Hall, Dawlish College, Shillingford St George Village Hall and Ashton Village Hall. 3 groups have already become TECs members. We arranged to work with all the groups who contacted us. Visit also due to Ilsington Primary in the new term.

The succesful recipient of this year’s fund was Dawlish College to install LED lighting in the Humanities Block. These are being installed by their in-house staff.  The College has agreed to work with TECs to engage staff and students about their energy use. Great stuff!

Thanks to theTECs team of Fuad, Helen, Bob and Jules

from Phil Durbin Tedburn Village Hall Committee

Using the TECs pack and monitoring equipment, some surprising findings were made.

In the end it came down to one area where we were using significant amounts of electricity……lighting. We have over 50 fluorescents and almost a dozen other basic light units at the hall……none are LED. We were shocked by the significance of how much we could save. Fuad and I went through all the calculations and together the following was proposed:

Replacement of all fluorescent tubes with long life LED tubes

10 new LED bulkhead lights

Fitting of 5 Danlers Illuminated Time Lag Switches to add to other time lag switches we already have.

Replace the old, inefficient fridge.

Pleased to report that the above work has now been completed and we are extremely grateful to Fuad and Teign Energy Communities both for the grant towards the cost of the work and the tremendous support and advice given to us throughout the project. We will be reporting back to let you know about the savings we will be making!!

Second of two members’ sessions, hosted by Gaynor and Keith, took place on a frosty February evening. Members got a chance to explore the newly-developed energy assessment tools in the TECs heating pack. Including the operation of the TECs infra-red camera. We did actually take pictures of Gaynor and Keith’s house too!

The first session was hosted by TECs member Tony who has been monitoring his energy use at home for some time. He showed members the results of his monitoring.

Contact Dr Watt if you are interested in finding out more about the pack, or hosting a members’ session

Congratulations to Tedburn St Mary Village Hall – happy recipients of the 2018 TECs Community Fund!

Fuad & Helen visited the hall to help Phil Durbin connect up the TECs monitoring equipment prior to full installation of the project. The aim is maximise benefits of Solar PV installed last year by installing an iboost to provide hot water through the panels together with further work to improve heating / hot water heating efficiency. We also met their local installer. Keeping the money in the local economy.

We will be working with Phil to monitor savings and on-going energy engagement at the centre.  The Village Hall has become a TECs member. Thanks a lot for your support, Phil and team!   Good luck!

Celebrating our second year at our AGM in April. Members voted to widen the reach of our COMMUNITY FUND. We also had a chance to tell members about the challenges of community energy post Feed-in-Tariff as well as talk about other activities for TECs in the energy saving field.

A jolly evening with food and drink and plenty of engagement. Thanks to everyone for attending.

Three of us from TECs attended the second Regen Community Energy (CE) Spring Gathering in March.  It was huge fun but also instructive and informative. The event provided us with a fanatastic networking opportunity. With other CE groups we were able to share the challenges thrown up by changes in the RE subsidies and look for some solutions.

We all came away with renewed vigour and new ideas to explore.  We’ll investigating some new opportunities.

Another successful Members’ evening around the issue of SMART METERS. Dr Watt fielded queries from TECs members about the new roll-out. There was clearly scepticism and some suspicion generated by this current government initiative. Open exchanges and some of the myths dispelled. Everyone went away better informed and 2 households decided to ask their providers for meters.

Dr Watt’s report is available.

Teign School the lucky recipient of the very first TECs Community Fund. Darren Jury, Site Supervisor, pictured here at the school, will be installing energy-saving LED panels in several of the corridors . We are very happy to be continuing our partnership with the school and helping them reduce their carbon footprint still further.

Eden Project BIG WALK hit Newton Abbot on June 14th. TECs and TNA greeted the Eden team at the site of the TNA Energy Sculpture in Golden Lion Sq. The walkers were promoting positive stories in local communities in line with the late Jo Cox’s message of unity and community. Dr Watt, aka TECs Sec Fuad, was there to meet them along with Betina and Amy from TNA. The walkers then went on to visit the Transition community garden

A Members’ workshop on solar pv combined with battery storage at Jane’s where solar panels have recently been augmented by battery storage. The aim to shift usage and use more of the solar renewable energy.

Jane and Michael introduced the set-up and their own expectations and reasons for installing this equipment. We explored the current and previous usage via on-line apps and standard bills to see if their expectations of reduced import of electricity from the grid had been achieved.

Dr Watt and another TECs member Tony shared graphical displays of their own residential generation and usage.  We discussed whether a battery storage sytem would be appropriate in other properties with solar pv. Report from Jane and a scope document from Dr Watt will follow shortly.

First TECs AGM celebrated in fine style with a sun and energy themed sing-along. TECs members were joined by the Moretones from Moretonhampstead, whose leader is also a TECs member. Bovey Tracey member Andrew said, “AGM was the best ever!  Thank you, and Fuad (great bread!), for making it so much fun and full of song.  And beer”

Members heard that TECs is on a sound financial footing and as a result has been able to increase this year’s Community Fund. Hooray! The fund will be opened to local organisations who want to carry our a project around energy awareness or energy saving.

Directors confirmed and accounts approved.

Thanks to the 25 members who attended in good voice.

TECs celebrates Earth Hour with talk on Community Energy in Teignbridge. We were invited by Teign Estuary Transition to be part of their talks’ programme in celebration of the 2017 Earth Hour exhibition at TAAG in Teignmouth. We had a display during the exhibition as well as our Sat morning talk.

Time for our very first AGM.

For your entertainment we have singers and musicians from within our TECs ranks. Come along and sing along too, as well as voting.

We’ve had a little practice and now all we need is YOU.

See you on March 30th at 18.30- 20.00 at Buckland and Milber Community Centre.

We’re really pleased to have made the first interest payments to our loyal members. Our members have backed the community energy idea and have put their faith in TECs.

We will be calling on current and new members to help us raise more money for other projects in 2017. Existing members will have priority when it comes to new investments in future projects. Watch this space for details

You can become a member now by taking advantage of our ‘Anytime Membership’

TECs networking at the South West Devon Community Energy Partnership gathering in Ivybridge, hosted by South Dartmoor Community Energy. A good opportunity to talk to other community energy groups about successes and challenges we all face. Plenty of support on offer and news of different initiatives in the SW. This forum meets quarterly , TECs and TVCE are members and both groups were represented. Reports on community energy visit to the European Parliament at the invitation of Molly Scott Cato (SW Green MEP) plus upcoming SW energy events  in Exeter in March.

October/November saw 3 TECs members’ gatherings.  We’ve been encouraged by the turnout for these sessions. They’ve been very lively and we’ve received valuable feedback about TECs.

It gives members a chance to meet one another, to get up to speed on TECs developments and equip themselves for their role as TECs ambassadors. A TECs member hosted each of the sessions. This format has worked well and we’ll repeat these in the future.

We rely on our members to spread the message about community energy amongst their own networks. Anytime membership always available

Our message at the Buckland and Milber Community Fun Day on Saturday August 27th. TECs and TNA had an info stall to promote our sustainability message.  We were also advertising our support for a REPAIR event run by Recycle Devon at the Buckland Community Centre on Sat Sept 24th.

Local residents are invited to dig out their small electrical items which don’t work and bring them along. We’ll have three volunteer repairers on hand from 10-12.30 Two of the volunteers are TECs members:  Martin the Fixer and TECs’ own Dr Watt.

For more info contact Emma Croft emma.croft@devon.gov.uk  or on 07966 566435 at Recycle Devon

TECs Dr Watt, aka Fuad Al-Tawil, TECs Secretary, was invited to address meeting of the Teignbridge Association of Local Councillors (TALC) on July 28th. This body is a forum for all town and parish councillors in our region.  Members had voted to hear about the TECs initiative.

Fuad kept the presentation to 5 minutes , leaving plenty of time for councillors’ questions. We were very encouraged by the many questions and lively discussion lasting a further 25 minutes. Thanks to Dudley Swain , TALC Secretary, for making this possible. Dudley commented in an e-mail , “Fuad was interesting and informative so his visit was worthwhile indeed”

Since the talk, one local representative has contacted us about a renewable energy proposal in his local area.

The word about community energy is getting through.

TECs member Joseph enjoying the sculpture trail at Heathercombe on Dartmoor. TNA Energy Group has a renewable energy sculpture featured in the trail.

TECs and TNA were invited to have an info table at the opening festivities.

A wonderful setting and the theme of RENEWAL chimes well with our aim of renewable energy and energy reduction, looking at ways to move away from fossil fuels.

For regular info and positive stories about climate change action and community energy,  check out the 10:10 website.

http://www.1010uk.org/articles

One way you can make a difference is by signing up as a TECs member. Get involved in community energy at a local level.

Wonderful weather for the TECs Members’ picnic in Courtenay Park

An opportunity to say thank-you to our members for supporting  our first share offer.

Members were updated on the latest set of projects with an installation deadline of end of September.

TECs Ambassadors. Always keen for members to help us talk to people about communty energy and TECs. Members attending pledged to organise small TECs gatherings and to try to sign up new members prior to our next share offer. Training in how to put the message across effectivley was a request from members.

If you want to become a TECs member, please go to the Membership page

GREAT SUCCESS for TECs’ first community energy share offer. Together we raised more than £60,000!

Lovely people from across Teignbridge took a leap of faith and became member/investors .  We’ve spread the message and now have new TECs Champions for  the next phase. We want to make more and more people aware of the benefits  of community energy in Teignbridge.

Next –  projects in the TVCE portfolio including Hannah’s at Seale Hayne.  Clock is ticking as these potential sites have to be realised by September . Want to join us to help move the project forward, please contact us  postie@teignenergycommunities.co.uk, OR on 01626 872721

Energy Week saw students at Teign School looking at renewable energy generation both at home and in developing countries.

Here are the prize winners of the design-a-logo competition sponsored by TECs. Congratulations to all who took part. Green Teign Energy Week to become part of the school calendar. Great News!

You can do your part by helping us finance the Teign School installation. Thanks.

Perfect day for our array

Local installer Simon Herbert with TECs Director Tony Sharland proudly inspecting our new panels on Teign School’s Sports Hall.

Now it’s over to you, our investors, for your share.

Hurray for our Teign/TECs Array!

We are ready for our first TECs installation in Teignbridge at Teign School. Solar panels are being installed in Feb half-term by local installer Simon Herbert.

Thanks to everyone who has got us to this point.

Click “go to site” for a 60 sec video about solar photo-voltaic from the Guardian’s ‘Keep it in the Ground’ campaign.

Glad Tidings of Great Joy!  TEIGN SCHOOL solar pv – all boxes ticked

• contract SIGNED with the Schools Trust (TAST)
• Feed-in-Tariff pre-registration now CONFIRMED
• installation goes ahead on Feb 12th

Read the full article by clicking the button below.

We are looking for someone who is keen to be part of a community organisation and assist the TECs board with legal advice and expertise, initially on a voluntary basis.  Click below to find out more.