Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy’s Braydon Manor Solar Farm was last night named the South West's best renewable energy scheme. The award was announced at the prestigious Renewable Futures and Green Energy Awards, which took place in Bath’s famous Assembly Rooms.

Lesley Bennett, Chair of Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy said: “We were very pleased to receive the award for Best Renewable Energy Scheme last night.  We are proud that Braydon Manor has been recognised as an exceptional scheme- not only in the community energy sector but as the best standalone renewable energy project in the South West.”

Braydon Manor Solar Farm is located 15km to the north west of Swindon and is a community led project with a projected annual output of just under 5 MW. It provides clean energy for approximately 1,400 homes, saving 2,500 tonnes of carbon per year. The site is grade four grassland and, over the 25 years of the project, will convert to become a wildflower meadow. This will create a biodiversity bank within the designated Braydon Forest Project.

Emma Chapman, Director of Business and Commercial Services for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust collected the award. She said: “This is a fantastic recognition of the importance that community energy schemes now represent in terms of bringing more people into renewables and doing it in a sustainable way with profits being kept in the community. We’d like to thank our partners, Mongoose Energy, for their support in both securing investment and their help to get the project running effectively and profitably as well as, Public Power Solutions and Triodos Bank.”

The annual awards have been created to celebrate the advances being made by the clean-energy sector from within the South West. The awards are sponsored by The Crown Estate, British Solar Renewables, Ashfords, Naturesave Insurance and Scottish and Southern Energy.