TV food guru Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s crowd-funding platform peoplefund.it is joining forces with community renewable energy platform, energyshare, to launch a £25,000 competition fund.

The first five local community renewable projects to raise £5000 will receive £5000 in matching funds, supported by British Gas.

Communities can register their projects, which will appear on the peoplefund.it site, where supporters can pledge up to £100.

The competition is part of a new energyshare fund, which will also be offering three awards of £2500 to community energy projects.

Applications, via a simple online form, will be judged by British Gas, NESTA and Forum for the Future. The deadline is May 10.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for community energy projects to increase their funding support by unlocking the power of the local community,” says Nick Underhill of peoplefund.it.

Both peoplefund.it and energyshare have been developed by Fearnley-Whittingstall’s KEOfilms, which manages the River Cottage enterprise, as well as other campaigns like Chicken Out and Hugh’s Fish Fight, which highlighted the realities of cheap battery-farmed chicken and fish discards.

For further information:
www.energyshare.com/community-fund/
www.peoplefund.it/

Related stories:
The Co-operative backs community renewables projects with £1 million (6-Mar)
UK government feed-in tariff reform puts microgeneration at risk (10-Feb)
Community hydro-electric project in Yorkshire surges ahead (8-Feb)
UK government puts £30 million into community energy and efficiency schemes (7-Dec 2011)