CREW is aiming to raise £50,000 throughout January 2021 to fund a renewable heat project in south-west London with our longstanding partners, Devas Club. The share offer launched on 14 December 2020 and will be running throughout January 2021. On 8 January 2021, we reached £10,000 of our investment target!

Shareholders will entirely fund the cost of 4 community-owned heat pumps to be installed at the youth club and, in return, will get a targeted 3% return on their investment.

Not only will these heat pumps generate huge energy savings in the Devas building – £962 per year in fact – they will reduce carbon emissions in the area by 17 tonnes CO2e annually and provide CREW with a means of hosting yet more climate outreach and education across Wandsworth, Merton and Lambeth.
 
A challenging but pivotal year for a share offer

While community share offers are an established means of funding community energy, ours is the first of its kind in London to focus on renewable heat! Luckily for us, heat pumps have been a hot topic in 2020 through the Government’s Green Homes Grant and the so-called Green Plan, where they were cited as a key element in the UK’s race to net zero by 2050. This certainly made it easier to shout about the green power of the mighty heat pump.
 
However, in the midst of a pandemic, it sometimes feels like there is, understandably, little room in people’s newsfeeds for a community project. This means we’ve had to work extremely hard all through 2020 to not only combat lockdown delays in surveying the building and quoting for the heat pumps, but also to navigate the fast-paced news sphere (not to mention launching at Christmas time and the Brexit deadline) in an entirely digital campaign!
 
Find out more about investing in CREW Energy’s community share offer here. Or follow our journey on social media and through our newsletter.

​‘Greening your home’ has been a hot topic of late, thanks to the Green Homes Grant. And now that many of us are spending more time at home (working or otherwise), we’re more aware of our energy use than ever before.

This series of blog posts is designed to show you how energy-efficient home improvements don’t have to cost you a pretty penny. ​Read more on how you can save money and energy in your home for free or on the cheap with CREW! This week, in the kitchen…

With lots of talk about the newly announced Green Homes Grant, we wanted to break it down for you with an explanation of measures covered, the amount of support you can apply for and more. Enjoy!

​You have hopefully heard us talking about our community share offer for months, and perhaps you have been intrigued (we very much hope so). For those unfamiliar with exactly what a share offer is, we have put together this quick guide that we’re hoping will give you everything you need to say ‘yes’ to investing.

CREW was recently awarded £27,000 by the Wandsworth Local Fund to install another package of energy efficiency measures at the Devas youth club in Battersea. This second phase of our project with the club includes yet more LED lighting, along with secondary glazing and destratifiers and will be closely followed by phase 3 – a heat pump system – in autumn 2020 (following our upcoming share offer!)
 
To bring you up to speed with what’s been going on behind the scenes, we are shining the spotlight on these different areas of tech (some of which you may recognise, and others which may be brand new!) and how they will benefit the club and the local area.

Did you catch our #InnovationLab presentation a few weeks ago on renewable heat in London's civic and domestic buildings? In case you missed it, you can watch it again right here (1.5 hours)!

​Just want the highlights? We live tweeted some questions here but, as promised, we have also provided a more detailed breakdown of the attendee Q&A session.

If you're interested in hearing more about our heat pump business plan, give them a read or contact us.

In case you missed it, we were recently featured in an article by Friends of the Earth Europe on how we are championing young people through community energy.

We got in touch with them via Twitter to share the stories of Yunus and Armelle along their journey from energy café advisor and EPC assessor to future green leader.

This story is set in London, where the government has been significantly reducing local councils’ budgets causing uncertain futures and financial insecurity. People are losing their trust in the government to effectively protect people’s futures. However, CREW Energy, a south-west London not-for-profit has found a local and accessible way to fight for systemic change by advocating for community energy and bringing power into the hands of the people.

Read the full story here.

After working with Devas Youth Club in Battersea back in 2019 to install solar panels, LED lighting and Hydromx, we are back for more! ​Following a successful bid for £27,000 worth of funding from the Wandsworth Local Fund, phase two began in July 2020.

CREW is currently implementing more LED lighting, secondary glazing and destratifiers. This will be followed by phase 3 – a heat pump system – in autumn 2020.

The measures put in place during phase one cut energy usage by 25%, amounting to a carbon saving of 11.72 tonnes per annum and a combined total of £3,400 on their energy bills. The measures for phases two and three will further reduce bills and get the club well on their way to meeting their climate targets. Find out more in our project case study.

We are delighted to be working with the club again – so much so that we will be launching our first share offer with them in September to help fund phase 3! Stay tuned for more details on how you can get involved.