The residents of the small town of Wadebridge in north Cornwall, are aiming to transform the area into the first solar- and renewable-energy powered town in the UK.
The town has a population of around 6,000 and, thanks to a campaign by local residents, aims to become the first solar-powered town in the UK.
This campaign to convert to renewable energy is being led by the Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network (WREN), which is aiming to install 1Mega Watts (MW) of solar energy by April 2012 and 7MW of solar energy by 2015, which would account for around a third of the town’s electricity supply.
The campaigners have faced a series of difficulties in their pursuit of this renewable energy goal, including winning over local residents and technical difficulties surrounding controversial proposals by the British government to limit the Feed-In-Tariff (payment for generating electricity) to small-scale projects.
However, the town’s residents are beginning to install their first solar panels, and their initial inspiration, efforts and journey towards this goal is the subject of a four-part YouTube mini-series.
