LoCASE Funding Now Up To £20,000!
LoCASE is a grant funding programme providing (non-repayable!) grants for small and medium-sized businesses, social enterprises or charities to make your business greener – either through launching new eco products, processes or services, developing your green business or through reducing your operation’s environmental impact through energy efficiency measures like LED lighting upgrade, Solar Panels or Air Source Heat pump installation and other resource saving projects.
The LoCASE grant limit is now up to £20,000.
The minimum grant remains at £1,000 and still covers up to 40% of eligible costs. Grants are calculated based on the CO2e savings and additionally impacts of projects.
We are very pleased by this news which should help businesses look at higher value projects, which have normally got longer returns on investment. This will enable businesses to invest to better their carbon footprint and cut their energy costs at a time when there is instability and inflation in energy pricing.
Upcoming events
How to apply to LoCASE business briefings scheduled.
The events are online, free and open to all. Tickets and link can be obtained on Eventbrite – Book into a LoCASE briefing
In September we are attending the Climate Change Surrey Heath event on Friday 16th September and the Grow your Business Show in Epsom & Ewell on 22nd September and Surrey Community Actions Event on 29th September.
Case studies
- Solar panels and batteries for an IT Support company
The business is a computer servicing and IT support firm based in the Tandridge District. It was the 1st project funded by LoCASE in Surrey. Their power usage was high and they researched renewable energies to reduce their reliance on the grid.
• The business chose solar panels and received funding from LoCASE to install 12 x 335w Solar PV Modules and install a new Inverter to boost their PV generated power to 6Kwh.
• The excess power is to be used to charge a TESLA Powerwall 2 battery system with the backup gateway. This will provide the business with Green Power for longer.
• The company also looked to switch energy provider to a green electricity contract.
• The project saved 1.15 tCO2e and pre energy prices increases the business had estimated they would save £570 per year on electricity.
2. Solar panels and batteries for vineyard hotel
This SME is a hotel and is located in a beautiful vineyard in Surrey. It is a 1or 2 night destination and is keen to achieve carbon neutral status. The hotel currently utilises energy from 17kW of solar
panels that is stored in 15kW of Tesla batteries for use throughout the building. They have found
that more overnight visitors are now dining at the restaurant, but the hotel alone is currently utilising the current solar power capacity, whilst the batteries operate at 50% capacity.
• This project part funded by LoCASE supported the installation of an additional 19.8kWp PV generating system – 60 panels, more than doubling the current system, thereby doubling the energy generation and fully utilising the battery capacity.
• The project saved 3.54 tCO2e and is helping fulfil the hotel sustainability and working towards its ambition to operate at Net Zero Carbon.
3. Solar panels for an Automotive Centre
This Automotive High Performance Centre offers a full range of specialist services to help their customers derive the most from their Caterham ownership for road, track or race, including simulator-based driver development. The SME’s workshop had already undergone some significant building works implementing energy saving measures with new insulated roof, double glazing throughout, LED motion-controlled lighting with light harvesting, rainwater harvesting, heating with zonal controls and a 12kWp solar panel array, installed in March 2017, generating just over 32MWh of electricity, equivalent to saving 8,300kg of CO2, since then.
• The SME applied to LoCASE for funding to enable them to purchase and install an additional 33Wkp of solar PV array which will significantly reduce imported power from the grid and enable cost effective replacement of gas heating and use of battery storage. The key objective of the project was to reduce the import of energy starting with electricity; the un-utilised surplus will be used to provide EV charging, replace gas heating and also make the use of battery storage for later use.
. The project saved 3.47tCO2e, with an estimated £4,800 saved annually on energy bills, safeguarding 9 jobs and supporting the apprentice programme & recruitment of 2 new apprentice.
4. Lighting & Heating upgrade for managed offices
The business manages offices building consisting of 20 offices with 24 hour access. There are currently 15 small businesses using the buildings.
• The project part funded by LoCASE helped upgrade all 269 light fixtures to LED, which would represent a considerable energy saving, reducing their carbon emissions and enabling the SME to be more cost effective.
• To further the efficiency of the building, the SME applied to LoCASE to install a hydrogen ready new boiler and replace air conditioning units, which were over twenty years old with a more energy efficient system. By doing all the above energy consumption was estimated to be cut by 40%.
• The project saved 4.37 tCO2e and payback on the c.£32k project is estimated at 2.64 years.
The LoCASE Surrey team is on hand to help you with your application.
Don’t miss out though as the programme must close in around 9 months’ time, so register now to claim your grant – Register | LoCASE
LoCASE also offers free courses for businesses.
To check out the courses available go to – Courses to develop your business from Low Carbon Across the South and East (LoCASE) – Surrey County Council (surreycc.gov.uk)
Spelthorne Business Forum will be running an online Webinar to further explain the LoCASE funding scheme along with details of the thinks you can apply for, case studies and examples as well as providing detailed information on how to apply. Go to our EVENTS PAGE HERE
You can read more about this and register for All About LoCASE and its Benefit To Your Business Webinar.