Brixton residents have just seven days to see a dream to power a Loughborough Estate block with solar energy become a reality.
The pioneering mutually-owned Brixton Energy 1, which gives the community the opportunity to buy shares in their own solar power scheme, will stop selling shares on Tuesday 20 March and is still £6,000 of its revised £60,000 target.
Locals can buy between £250 and £20,000 worth of shares in the solar panels, which will be placed on a Loughborough Estate rooftop. Each shareholder can then choose to take their dividend of up to three per cent, or leave it in a community education fund.
The scheme, which launched three weeks ago, has already garnered the support of locals, the council, and big business. It has banked £35,000 with a further £19,000 promised.
Loughborough Estate resident Katie Wengraf, 28, said: “Just knowing some of those electrons are turning on my lights is awesome, and as a bonus I get a return on my investment.”
Another investor, 35-year-old Jason Neylon said: “This week I closed my ecological stock market investment fund and moved it to a real ecological investment I could see. Brixton Energy Solar 1 is a local inner city socially responsible renewable energy project investment with better financial and social rewards.”
To celebrate their success, and mark a final drive for the last investors, Brixton Energy are holding a launch event on Thursday at the aptly named Electric Social, in Acre Lane.
Agamemnon Otero, founding member, described the scheme as “a true community project infused with co-operation, hard work and a year of dedication.” More than 85 local residents have pledged their own money so far, and organisers have spent a joint total of some 2,000 hours of unpaid labour.
