A community energy organisation in Rossendale has been granted £15,000 to go towards plans for a large solar farm.

Rossendale Valley Energy have been granted the share of a total £95,000 Electricity North West are pumping into community projects in the region as part of their Powering Our Communities scheme, which supports the development of community and local energy initiatives.

The money is to help plans for a large solar farm to come to fruition and to go towards a project to transfer a terraced street to net-zero.

More than £32,000 of the total grant has been awarded to projects in Lancashire.

Power for People and Charge My Street have also been awarded £22,500 to benefit customers across the North West.

Charge My Street will use £12,500 to develop its app so that community buildings can sell their surplus power to Charge My Street EV charge points, while Power for People will use £10,000 to create a project which will enable North West community energy groups to form a national policy for the right to local supply.

Helen Seagrave, Electricity North West’s community energy manager, said: “Community energy has a major role to play in helping the North West meet future energy needs and its ambitious net zero targets.

“Achieving those targets requires everybody to play their part and these local projects will certainly help hundreds of thousands of customers within our region.

“This is the fifth year of our Powering Our Communities Scheme and takes the total number of projects we have supported across the North West to 33 in different types of communities, ranging from communities of place to communities of interest or faith.

“We were really impressed by the strength of applications this year. The approved projects will undoubtedly make a difference locally and I can’t wait to see the final outcomes.”

To find out more about this year’s project and the Powering Our Community fund, visit www.enwl.co.uk/communityandlocalenergy.