Transition Montpelier

We had another well attended and interesting meeting. Over 55 people attended, donating £17.26 towards expenses. Thanks to all who participated, helped clear up, have written up summaries, baked cakes and buscuits, agreed to take on treasurer and bookkeeping roles for Transition Montpelier and all other actions, and Kassin and his team for the use of the building. It’s exactly what we need.

The meeting opened with Miguel Mendonca’s talk following intros and welcomes from two Dans. Miguel presented some key points from his work which has contributed to the incoming feed-in tariffs. Miguel has worked for many years on ways of developing the green economy and has presented his findings to many places around the world and can now add Montpelier to the list that includes Brussels and Capitol Hill in Washington DC!

Basically the feed in tariff will encourage the take up of Solar PV (photo-voltaic) panels which produce electricity that when not used in the home, feeds into the national grid for which the owner will be paid a premium rate. As such, with a healthy take up it provides an excellent way for individuals and community groups to influence government economic policy to be more sustainably oriented. A feed-in tariff for solar thermal (hot water) will come in next year.

Click here for a link to a spreadsheet provided by Montpelier’s solar company, 1World Solar run by Jon Walker which calculates the return you can make on solar PV. (If you can book up a system before April you are possibly still eligible to a £2000+ grant.)

Project group sand notices were next and following a short summary of Monday’s Tescos meeting, brief presentations were then made by individuals keen to get projects going on Food (Sally), Open Spaces (Shiona) and Energy (Dan). The meeting then broke up into smaller groups to start work on the projects.

Details of all these can be seen if you scroll down or click on each group below for a direct link.

Energy

Food

Open Spaces

The March 6^th painting of the Resource Centre room has been postponed. Thanks to all who have said they would help do this. We will keep you informed.