About us
Who we are
Ynni Sir Gâr is a Community Benefit Society (CBS), working with communities to reduce energy costs, promote energy efficiency, tackle fuel poverty, generate clean renewable energy, install locally owned and managed electric vehicle charge points and keep profits and jobs local. By so doing, we hope to contribute towards a sustainable and robust local economy in Carmarthenshire and environs.
Ynni Sir Gâr was founded in 2012 following a year of public consultation. We aim to support community groups and those suffering from fuel poverty and concerned about energy security and climate change; creating renewable energy projects run for people, not profit, with any surplus generated reinvested in the local economy.
We generate renewable energy, advise on energy efficiency, invest in sustainable solutions, and keep profits local.
Vision
Delivering energy saving and renewable energy schemes can be a real challenge for small communities. However, we believe communities have a right to benefit directly from their natural resources, and we aim to provide enough support to deliver every possible scheme in Carmarthenshire, while leaving as much of the control and profit as possible within the community. While government and business have key roles in delivering change on climate and renewable energy issues, we feel that communities have a crucial role and responsibility to play in meeting the challenge too.
We believe that engaging with this challenge and planning a future where we own and generate sustainable energy can be a stimulant to creating stronger, more resilient and happier communities. We recognise that energy auditing, and a planned approach to reducing energy use, is the priority in terms of energy efficiency, but we also see the potential for renewable energy schemes to earn money / lower bills and contribute to a robust local economy. By doing so, community owned renewable energy projects contribute to the aims set out in the Future Generations Act of Wales and thereby support the natural and cultural heritage of Carmarthenshire, and the health and wellbeing of our communities.
Ynni Sir Gâr can help communities by:
- Offering expert advice
- Identifying access to finance
- Helping with project management and delivery
- Making connections
- Through our community energy network in Wales and Europe, providing information on what kind of projects have been, and will be delivered by communities working together
- Directly funding projects through our community benefit fund
Cooperation
We look to work in partnership across all sectors. While we are deeply committed to the principles of community ownership and grass roots development, we know that without the commitment of statutory and local governmental bodies, local organisations and strong commercial backing, developing renewable energy schemes can be a slow and challenging process. Our ethos is to remove as many barriers as possible by being open to sharing schemes and their benefits with business partners with the right skills and assets. We have a clear joint venture model allowing us to share profits from schemes with investors or developer partners, and these joint ventures can be seen at work under our Projects page.
We are a member of Community Energy Wales and cooperate with a number of community energy groups across Wales and Europe.
Community Share Offers
Ynni Sir Gâr have run three community share offers in the past, specifically to fund our Community Wind Turbine in Rhydygwydd, Salem. These share offers have allowed the community project to be realised, and thereby, will allow Ynni Sir Gâr to be self-sufficient in its funding in future, and enable us to help transform communities, combat fuel poverty and climate change as well as being able to offer all shareholders a fair return on funds. Our early investors have been offered 5.6% interest from the day of investment.
Visit the Projects page for more background on our past share offers and keep an eye on our News and social media pages for future opportunities.
Support
Our work has been made possible through a number of supporters including the Wales Co-operative Centre and the Welsh Governments Energy Scheme.
Our work is currently supported by LEADER, a programme funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and Welsh Government.
