SeSaME (Sedgeberrow Sustainable and Manageable Energy Group) along with help from Act on Energy have won 2 awards in the Wychavon Intelligently Green Awards. Coming not only top in the ‘Community group category’ but also being named overall winners of the entire awards.

Read what SeSaME have to say about this:

‘SeSaME aims to open up a treasure trove of renewable energy, informing, encouraging and supporting a sustainable village community exploring, and where possible, acting on the activities shown below

a) We seek to assist villagers in estimating their electricity consumption and give them advice about reducing it, where needed. We have electricity monitors to lend out to those villagers who want to check how useful they are before they spend their money on one. We will offer advice to villagers about reducing waste and improving the insulation of their property. This year a partnership with the County and District Councils and local Act on Energy has led to external insulation grants for the owners of 18 old houses. A total of £58,977.15 (ECO and GDC funding) has benefitted Sedgeberrow village. That works out to a carbon saving of over 400tonnes CO2 over the lifetime of the products.

b) We have investigated the best options for and the viability of a Generator harnessing the energy of the River Isbourne, liaising closely with the Village Flood Group. We had a site visit and consultation provided by the Sharenergy Co-operative, funded by the Marches Energy Agency, that revealed it not to be feasible.

c) We want to look at ways of maximizing solar panel use and facilitating a corporate village approach to fundraising and construction. We will support the Village Hall action plan, helping to look at all other alternative energy sources for the Hall.

The years 2015  & 2016 have seen us co-ordinate the installation of Solar panels for both the Village Hall and the School, the former benefiting from new air source to water central heating with a £10,000 grant from “Welcome to Our Future”, and upgraded insulation, also grant aided. At the same time 18 private houses have received external wall insulation’

To find out more information on SeSaME and other projects they are involved in click here.

To find out more about the Wychavon Intelligently Green awards and other winners click here.