Thurlestone Parish Council is investigating the opportunities of exploiting our Devon woodlands to provide heat fuel for residents.

The council has managed to secure some funding to look into how Thurlestone can generate and distribute its own heat. The scheme will attempt to gather information about how parishioners, businesses and community organisations would feel about the project.

The preliminary intention is to look at providing local heat for community buildings and residents, that would be more sustainable, economically and environmentally. This would hopefully create safer opportunities for the future. All of which would be funded by local investment with the excess profits going towards grant support for good local causes. Consequently, this would help the local area retain finances within the South Hams economy, preventing it being lost to large multi-national energy supply companies.

The Parish Council have contracted DARE, local renewable energy consultants to undertake a feasibility study. Alongside which, they are searching for local volunteers who would be interested in getting involved in a working group to enhance this process.

The village of Thurlestone is the lead in this initiative because of the location of the village due to its position off the main gas grid. Initially the village did express an interest in searching for alternatives away from the common reliance on more expensive heating fuels. Within the community there is a desire to develop a resilience to normal heating fuels and investigate the possibility of having a community owned energy model.

The initial pre-feasibility work led by South Devon Woodfuel Hub, looked for locations which could explore the use of local wood fuel for heat generation and consequently support the local economy, which is where Thurlestone got involved. It led to the Thurlestone Neighbourhood Plan group enquiring in its consultation whether there was any local interest in the project. Which revealed that 63% of parishioners who responded would support the development of a community heating system.

After which, a member of Thurlestone Neighbourhood Plan made contact with DARE who wrote the original pre-feasibility study which will determine if the project would be technically and financially viable.

The future of this project will be an interesting venture for Thurlestone which could impact the local environment and community.