Prior to the proposed Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) cuts OVESCO had 120kW of community PV projects ready to be completed before 31 March 2012. We also had a further three organic farms and a primary school in the pipeline for approximately 80kW. We built our business plan around these projects following the success of the Harveys PV project in Lewes (fitted 27 July 2011, just before the previous FiT cut). The plan allowed Chris Rowland to be employed on a full-time basis at OVESCO. Chris split his time between working on energy efficiency advice (home insulation), mircogeneration (grants/loans via Lewes District Council) and developing projects for Community PV. OVESCO also published information on its website for other community groups to use for their own projects, because of the interest generated by the Harvey PV project and supported PlanLoCal (funded by Communities and Local Government). All five of the OVESCO IPS directors put in many hours voluntary work at meetings and events to raise awareness about the work OVESCO was doing and develop a business plan for the future.

During the period from July to October… (read on) 

Chris Rowland, Director, OVESCO