MORE than £2.5M of central government funding will be spent on delivering clean energy to the people of Glastonbury as part of plans to regenerate the town.

Glastonbury is one of 101 towns in England (and only two in Somerset) to receive backing from the government’s towns fund, receiving £23.6M for a dozen schemes designed to revive the town centre.

One of the 12 schemes, dubbed the Glastonbury Clean Energy Project, will see local authorities working with local firm Avalon Community Energy (ACE) to deliver energy to local businesses through new solar panel installations.

Somerset County Gazette: Map Showing The Location Of The Glastonbury Towns Fund Projects. CREDIT: Mendip District Council. Free to use for all BBC wire partners.

Mendip District Council has now confirmed that more than one-tenth of the full town deal budget will be spent on delivering this project.

The council published the information on the BidStats procurement website as part of an advertisement for a contractor to help with the project’s business case, which must be submitted to the government by June 28, 2022.

The successful contractor, who will be announced in late-November, will earn up to £70,000 for seven months’ work to deliver the business case, including work on the overall viability of the project.

ACE will base its operations in the Beckery area at the town’s southern edge, with £1.06M being raised from a share or bond offer to residents which will earn interest at four per cent annually.

In addition, any financial surplus generated by the project will be reinvested back into the local community.

While the BidStats advert specifies £2.6M will be allocated from the town deal, the council’s own website puts the figure at £2.8M – both being more than one-tenth of the entire town deal budget provided by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

The installations may include a “ground-mounted solar array” producing 4.4MW, rooftop solar panels which would generate energy for businesses and other town deal projects (such as the revamped St. Dunstan’s community hub), and a battery storage facility to balance demand.

A council spokesman said: “This project will make a vital contribution to realising the town council’s goal for Glastonbury to become carbon-neutral by 2030.

“Through investment in clean growth, it will enable the town’s sustainable economic regeneration by creating new self-financing green jobs, and providing competitively priced, low-carbon energy.

“The project will be delivered by ACE in collaboration with Beckery Village businesses, community organisations and landowners.

“We estimate this would save 1,130 tonnes of carbon per year and yield an annual revenue surplus of £200,000.

“Over the 30-year life of the installations, this would total 34,000 tonnes of carbon saved and up to £6M revenue surplus, one-and-a-half times the value of the initial investment.”