Our Story

Llangattock is a small hillside village in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park. We have just over 400 homes, ranging from working farms to holiday lets, and a population of around 1,300. There is a vibrant primary school, a community hall, a church, a chapel, and a small industrial estate, as well as two pubs and a hotel.

Llangattock also has a thriving allotments society (entering its third growing season), a community woodland group (working in partnership with private landowners and public bodies including British Waterways) and a dedicated group of litter pickers.

The community began its green journey in late 2008 with NESTA’s Big Green Challenge. Residents across the National Park worked together on this year-long project, ultimately winning over £300,000 for community-based green initiatives. Now, through Green Streets, the community is continuing that journey on a local level, finding ways to reduce residents’ energy bills and make our village more sustainable.

The ultimate aim is to become a carbon...

Read Full Story ultimate aim is to become a carbon negative community – i.e. generating more energy than they actually use – and to share what they learn along the way with other rural communities, helping them towards a low-carbon future.

Key to the plans is micro-hydro. This part of Wales is blessed with steep hillsides and plenty of rain. The result is a natural, non-polluting resource: water power. By working with private landowners and taking advantage of Clean Energy Cashback tariffs, Llangattock aims to harness local streams to generate energy to the benefit of the community.

As the name suggests, micro-hydro schemes are small and relatively simple – in fact the equipment needed can be housed in a small garden shed. The project team is currently working with landowners on three private schemes, each with an element of community benefit, and is in advanced talks for a wholly community owned scheme as well.

Llangattock is also planning to install 4.32kWp photovoltaic (PV) panels on the school roof. Thanks to the Clean Energy Cashback tariffs, this will generate up to £2,000 a year of much-needed extra income for the school.

Of course, finding practical, long-term ways for everyone to save energy is just as important as generating energy. To that end, 41 households have applied to become ‘guinea pigs’ for the year through British Gas Green Streets.

All of these homes will be given energy assessments, to establish what changes need to be made. Twenty of these homes (selected by public lottery) will have up to £4,000 worth of improvements, while the remaining 21 will have almost £500 spent on them.

The aim is to discover what really makes the biggest difference to people’s energy consumption – big-ticket items, or small, simple changes – because once they know that, they’ll have a template for making every home in the village cheaper to run and more energy efficient.

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