Our aims are to deliver benefits to the community by:

• promoting renewable energy generation and developing, installing and operating renewable and low carbon energy systems;
• enabling the local and wider community to share in the ownership of renewable and low carbon energy projects;
• raising awareness and supporting educational and other initiatives related to renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability

You become a member of LWCE when you buy shares through its community share offer. The shareholders are the members.

LCE will be run by a Board of Directors who are elected by the membership. All members have one vote whatever their level of shareholding. At present the Founding Directors are as follows:

• James Birdsey
• David Cowley
• Locklynne Hall
• Emma Hutchinson
• Keith Maddock
• Jan Souness

They will be eligible for nomination as Directors when the first Board is elected at the first Annual General Meeting

Possibly yes. If you are a school, business or voluntary organisation we will carry out a free feasibility to see if the building is suitable. Contact us

Our vision is to develop a range of renewable energy installations making use of our local resources such as the sun, wind, water and woodlands, to reduce carbon emissions, provide a return to investors and funding to help people reduce their energy use and live more sustainably. Our first projects will be solar systems fitted to community buildings such as libraries, neighbourhood hubs, leisure and sports clubs. We will also consider other technologies such as solar water heating, biomass boilers and heat pumps.

LiveWire Community Energy Limited (LWCE) has been established as a Community Benefit Society to enable local people and organisations to invest in renewable energy installations that benefit the local community.

It is a non for profit organisation with any surplus reinvested for the benefit of the community. It has been established with the support of LiveWire Community Interest Company.

The motivation to start LWCE came from a belief that part of the solution to the environmental and economic problems we all face, is for people to take control of their energy generation and distribute the benefits to their local community. We also want to enable people to make an ethical investment in their local community, which provides them with a financial return.

A community benefit society is expected to fulfil the following

• Conduct a business:the business must be run primarily for the benefit of people who are not members of the society, and must also be in the interests of the community at large. It will usually be charitable or philanthropic in character.

• Interest on share and loan capital: it is unusual for a community benefit society to issue more than nominal share capital (for example one £1 share per member). Where it does issue more than nominal share capital or where members make loans to the society, or both, any interest paid must not be more than a reasonable rate to obtain and retain enough capital to run the business.

• Profits and assets: the society's rules must not allow either profits or the society's assets to be distributed to the members. Profits must generally be used to further the objects of the society by being ploughed back into the business. Where profits are used in part for another purpose, that purpose should be similar to the main object of the society, for example for philanthropic or charitable purposes. The rules must specify the beneficiary or beneficiaries if any.

• Dissolution: the society's rules must not allow its assets to be distributed to its members on dissolution. The rules should state that on dissolution the assets should be transferred, for example, to some other body with similar objects. If no such body exists the rules should state that the assets must then be used for similar charitable or philanthropic purposes.

The Co-operative and Community Benefit Society Act 2014 came into force from 1st August 2014. The Act replaced the “industrial and provident society “legal form with 2 new legal forms which are as follows:

• Co-operative society
• Community benefit society

Before the 1^st August 2014 all societies registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 were legally referred to as “industrial and provident societies” whatever they called themselves and from the 1^st August 2014 these are known as “registered societies”.