HOCKERTON BIOGAS COMMUNITY

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“HOCKERTON” BIOGAS COMMUNITY

Gables Dr, Hockerton, Southwell NG25 0QU, UK
Latitude: 53.097542 | Longitude: -0.929976

Description: Hockerton Housing Project is a community business and a self-sufficient co-housing development, located close to the small village of Hockerton just outside Newark in Nottinghamshire. They built one of the first examples in the UK of earth sheltered, self-sufficient ecological housing development, with reduced heating requirements, local food production (vegetable gardens, polytunnels, aquaponics) and wastewater treatment. Sustainable Hockerton is an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) formed by a group of Hockerton residents in 2009. The Society has installed a 225 kW wind turbine and 87 kW solar PV, which generates income from feed in tariffs. Any financial surplus is distributed to the parish to promote sustainable development projects (such as building retrofits and other efficiency measures).

Members:

Hockerton Housing Project
Sustainable Hockerton

Main actions so far:

During the first year, ISABEL organized two workshops in Hockerton, where initial visions for community biogas in the co-housing and Hockerton village were explored.
ISABEL has extended the network with other actors surrounding the village, in the wider Newark and Sherwood area. In the process, the local agricultural college with a horticultural social enterprise adjacent to it was approached – although there has been on-going interest, currently limited funds available are a constraint.
Researched, networked and attended seminars and meetings with potential companies such as Lindhurst Engineering, Puxin Technology, Methanogen UK Ltd. to find out various technical aspects of AD, its size and options feasible for the Hockerton region
Further investigations are underway with local enterprises and Hockerton Housing to see if there are ways of providing a commercial sustainable source of energy to a local enterprise that also has some additional community benefit.
Simon Tilley from Hockerton has also liaised with the UK ISABEL team to visit the Calthorpe Project site to see a functioning Biogas unit within an urban community setting at Kings Cross. This has certainly enthused him with the idea of setting up a small community owned AD plant in the region.

Next steps:

ISABEL UK team has also looked up potential funding sources which the Hockerton region could be potentially eligible to apply being a rural location. These have been communicated to the key stakeholders at Hockerton.
Some of the stakeholders expressed a further community engagement activity and ISABEL UK team is planning an activity in the coming months to get the community activated