We develop renewable energy projects, we put those projects into community ownership and provide administration services.
We use our profits, expertise and networks to help other ecologically and socially focused enterprises get off the ground and maximise their impact.
Gower Power is a Community Benefit Society owned and controlled by its members. We currently have 44 individual members, all of which live in or around Swansea. We launched a share offer on Wednesday 27th September, 2023 and are now open to applications from new members. To review our share offer document please click here.
Our Society’s rules can be viewed here.
Frequently asked questions can be found here.
Board Members
Chris Dow
Chair
Mary Sherwood
Director
Ben Ferguson
Director
Rob Harvey
Director
Ant Flanagan
Director
John Whitten
Director
Chris Dow
Chair
Chris’s career has combined his love of the outdoors, commitment to outdoor learning and development, and skills in education, training, facilitation and project management. After working as Kilvey Community Woodland officer, a trainer and development worker at Dynamix and a Forest School Leader, Chris trained as a teacher and worked in primary and secondary education whilst serving as a Director of Forest School SNPT. Since 2018 Chris has worked as a Project Manager at Down to Earth where responsibilities include fundraising, training and accreditation, and management of health and well-being programmes. Chris brings a wealth of skills to the board including critical and creative thinking and a keen interest in maximising benefits for both the environment and communities.
Mary Sherwood
Director
Mary’s work has mostly focused on supporting people affected by low income. After numerous third sector roles, Mary delivered anti-poverty campaigns, development work and policymaking for Swansea Council, before serving a term as a local councillor with political roles combining her interests in poverty reduction and environmentalism. She works as Director of Fairer Future, providing training and consultancy specialising in socioeconomic inequality. Mary ensures the Community Benefit Funds we manage arising from renewable energy projects (locally and elsewhere) support relevant, worthwhile projects.
Ben Ferguson
Director
Ben has over a decade of experience in community energy, serving as a founding
member and director of Carmarthenshire’s Ynni Sir Gar project (delivering the county’s first ever community-owned wind turbine) as well as Community Energy in Pembrokeshire. With extensive technical knowledge of climate change, energy efficiency and renewable energy at all scales, Ben has worked with a range of stakeholders – from community groups through to statutory bodies, local businesses, and multi-national developers. He is currently Co-Executive Director of Community Energy Wales.
Rob Harvey
Director
Rob was a plumbing and heating engineer before completing a Geography Degree
at Swansea University, volunteering with Swansea Council’s Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development teams, and working in an environmental consultancy company. In 2016 he founded Limitless Energy, a renewable heating and electrical company that soon had £1M+ turnover and currently has eight employees, reducing dependence on fossil fuels by installing heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations, solar PV and battery systems.
Ant Flanagan
Director
Ant is one of the founders of Gower Power Co-op.
He has an MBA from Cardiff University and a background in community development.
He has used this combination of skills to help small business owners, serving as vice-chair of the Swansea Rural Development Plan Partnership and working as a non-executive
Board member of Cwmpas (formerly Wales Co-op Centre). He has set up and developed numerous successful social enterprises, including Gower Power, Cae Tan CSA and Gower Regeneration Ltd (Wales’s first community-owned solar farm), which won the REA’s 2017 Renewable Energy Project Award for being “the most commendable sustainable electricity generation project undertaken by a community group in England and Wales”.
John Whitten
Director
John co-led the development of Wedmore solar co-operative, one of the first community- owned solar schemes in the UK (www.wedmorecpc.co.uk). He also founded an award- winning solar panel installation company, Ethical Solar, installing hundreds of photovoltaic systems during the solar boom around 2010. While most of their work was domestic, they installed larger systems on farms and community buildings. Their clients included Bristol City Council, Bristol Power CIC, Bristol Energy Coop and The Wildlife Trust.
Grants Panel
Helen Grey
Helen has a BSc in Environmental Science and extensive experience of developing and managing projects in community and rural regeneration, environmental sustainability and nature conservation. She worked in Swansea Council on projects such as ‘Get Into Gower’, which addressed the barriers faced by people on low incomes in accessing and interacting with the countryside. Helen now works for Natural Resources Wales and continues to contribute to policy development and practical interventions recognising sustainability as an issue of social justice and health equality.
Jim Robinson
Jim has a lifelong passion for the environment and animal welfare, and a background in both teaching and volunteering, having worked for many years with the Scouts Association and, ongoing, with Killay Community Council. He is currently co-chair of Swansea and Gower Green Party and, exercising his interest in renewable energy, a director of Gower Regeneration Ltd. Jim’s business, Killay Pet Shop, runs on 100% green electricity and operates a closed loop recycling system to drastically reduce plastic waste.
Alyx Baharie
Alyx has worked for Swansea Council for Voluntary Service (SCVS) for over 30 years, supporting third sector groups with funding, legal structures, policies etc. She currently administers the Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm Community Fund in north Swansea. Alyx is a strong believer in the importance of the natural world for the sake of our planet as well as for the huge benefits for people.
Partner Organisations
Community Energy Together
National Partner
Gower Electric Co
Local Partner Project
Gower Regeneration Ltd
Local Partner Project
Cae Tan CSA
Local Partner Project
SCEES Ltd
Local Partner Project
Community Energy Together
National Partner
Community Energy Together (CET)
CET has five member societies: Shropshire and Telford Community Energy, Kent Community Energy, Yealm Community Energy, Wight Community Energy, and Gower Power. The five societies are committed to working together and supporting each other for the benefit of all.
Our partnership is buying seven operational solar farms, with a total generation capacity of around 36 megawatts. The solar farms will save around 317,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over their lifetimes and supply the equivalent of 12,750 homes. The total solar portfolio will add 20% to the total of community owned solar in England and Wales.
By being part of CET each member society is part of a larger, supportive family, working together to get the best out of all our projects and maximising the surplus we can devote to community benefits. It’s an innovative model that enables us to reduce legal and financial transaction costs and to support each other in the event of any one organisation having financial or technical difficulties.
Gower Electric Co
Local Partner Project
Local energy storage and supply project
This innovative project set up by Gower Power, called Gower Electric Co, is the first of its kind in Wales providing local people with a chance to buy locally produced renewable energy over the local grid. When you sign up for the electricity tariff you can opt for a discount on your bill or to donate to community projects. Any energy that you need that can’t be produced from our local solar farm and storage facility will be bought off other Welsh renewable energy providers.
Gower Regeneration Ltd
Local Partner Project
1MW community-owned solar farm in Dunvant.
‘The most commendable sustainable electricity generation project undertaken by a community group across Wales and England.’ (2017 Community Renewable Energy Project Award WINNERS)
This 1 Megawatt solar farm, that is enough electricity for about 300 houses, is the first community-owned solar farm in Wales. All profits are being used for regenerating the local area by supporting land-based livelihoods and building education and skills in order to make the rural economy more environmentally sensitive and stronger.
Further to a successful community share offer which raised circa £900k, Gower Power Co-op CIC put this solar farm into community ownership in 2017. Returns to investors are projected at 5% per year.
Cae Tan CSA
Local Partner Project
Community Supported Agriculture scheme on Gower.
Cae Tan Community Supported Agriculture, based on Gower, is one of the flagship community projects that Gower Power supports. We helped set up Cae Tan in 2015 and it is now the largest CSA in Wales providing weekly organic vegetable boxes to over 130 local households. As well as providing a bountiful harvest each week, Cae Tan delivers educational programmes in schools and also therapeutic work onsite to disadvantaged groups. As well as providing strategic advice and business planning support, we’ve helped sponsor Cae Tan’s education officer who is working in primary schools across Swansea.
SCEES Ltd
Local Partner Project
390KW roof mounted solar on schools.
Swansea Community Energy & Enterprise Scheme is unlike most community-owned renewable energy companies in that it was initiated by our local council (City & County of Swansea Council). Gower Power Co-op CIC ran SCEES’ community share offer in 2016, raising £465k, it was over-subscribed in a number of weeks. SCEES is now run independently by a group of local Directors. SCEES manages 390kw of solar PV, on 9 schools and 1 care home for the benefit of residents in some of the more deprived areas in Swansea.
Advisors
Finance Earth
Consultants / Advisers
Bright Renewables
Asset Manager
Welsh Energy Service
Consultants / Advisers
Juno Energy Ltd
Consultants / Advisers
Finance Earth
Consultants / Advisers
Finance Earth is one of the UK’s leading environmental impact investment adviser, offering corporate finance advisory and fund management services across conservation, natural capital and renewable energy projects.
They recently developed Community Owned Renewable Energy LLP (CORE Partners), a £40m investment programme targeting operational, ground-mounted solar farms and through this programme have supported Gower Power to acquire a 5MW solar farm at Brynwhilach, Llangefelach. The programme’s principal objective is to turn solar farms into community-owned assets, whilst maximising the financial, environmental and social impact within the community.
Bright Renewables
Asset Manager
Bright Renewables is the UK’s first fully community-owned Asset Management company which has enabled it to develop a unique base of knowledge on the sector. They manage the UK’s largest portfolio of community-owned renewable assets, with more than 83 MW of generation across 42 projects ranging from run-of-the-river hydro to residential rooftop and utility-scale ground mount solar PV (including Brynwhilach Solar Farm). Their scale and structure put them in a unique position at the forefront of the sector, empowering them to maximise value for their clients and in the process refine the blueprint for successful community energy groups across the UK.
Welsh Energy Service
Consultants / Advisers
The Welsh Government Energy Service, helps realise Wales’ decarbonisation ambitions and support the public sector and community energy sector in Wales.
It aims to develop energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that will reduce carbon emissions and support the drive towards a successful low carbon economy. The service provides technical, financial and other specialist support for energy projects to realise cost savings, income generation and maximise the benefits retained in Wales. The service has been provided essential support to the Gower Regeneration and Gower Power Solar Storage projects.
Juno Energy Ltd
Consultants / Advisers
Juno supports commercial and community energy projects with a focus on solar and marine technology.
Having recently carried out site development activities including design, contracts and consenting for clients including Morlais, GSK, Locogen and Gower Power Co-op CIC, the team has led some of the first marine energy and community solar projects in the UK. Juno have been instrumental in the development of both the Gower Regeneration and Gower Power Solar Storage projects
