About Us

Our long-term vision is for our community to generate and control its own energy resources. We have completed a number of successful projects and are looking now at a full range of renewable energy technologies to generate energy on a wide scale. This will include not only solar power but, for example, ground source heating, biomass, solar power and hydro power. We are also looking at ways to use the energy that is generated in more efficient ways (for example by storing any excess energy for future use).

We will invest 50% of our profits each year back into our communities around Wolverton and broader Milton Keynes. This will help to transform the energy efficiency of homes, businesses and the wider community, cutting costs and carbon, improving our resilience and that of the local economy.

The remaining 50% of our profits each year will be invested into neighbourhood community projects to relieve fuel poverty.

Marie Osborne

Marie is a Wolverton resident and Director of Future Wolverton Limited. Future Wolverton has a five year track record of working on community energy projects, aimed at improving the energy efficiency of Victorian homes in the Town. Marie is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs and is passionate about all things Wolverton! With Jane, Marie has project managed the work of the Society for the past year, using her excellent networks within Milton Keynes to further the cause of Community Energy in MK. Marie brings an invaluable experience of delivering complex projects with many stakeholders, and invaluable skills in engaging the community developed through over 10 years work within her local community.

Paul Johnston

Paul is an advisor, interim, local entrepreneur and experienced serial Chief Technology Officer. Paul most recently worked in a Senior technical role at Amazon Web Services where he spoke at conferences on several continents and was involved in helping to develop one of the fastest growing products in the business. Paul has over 15 years experience in both running his own companies, creating startups and working at and advising enterprise level organisations. Paul has provided both technology solutions and strategic consulting to companies like Sony Mobile, Unilever, Carphone Warehouse, Tesco and the UK Government. He has been involved with founding or helping to start several startups, and now does due diligence and advisory work helping investors to identify whether the technology a company has created does what they say it does and has been well put together.

Professor Robin Roy

Robin’s background is in engineering and design and is Emeritus Professor of Design and Environment at the Open University. Since joining the OU in 1971 he has contributed to many OU courses and modules on design, innovation, energy and environment. In 1979 he founded the Design Innovation Group to research design and innovation management and sustainable design. He has worked with the National Energy Foundation and the Energy Saving Trust on several projects, including consumer adoption of renewable energy technologies and the EST’s field trial of UK heat pumps. He has published many books, chapters, papers and articles on topics ranging from design creativity and environmentally sustainable service systems to the innovation and evolution of consumer products. He is a Fellow and Council member of the Design Research Society, a member of the National Energy Foundation’s Advisory Council and a Trustee of Powerful Information, a local international development charity.

Jane Grindey

Jane is a founding member of Wolverton Community Energy and has served as a Director since April 2015, has been instrumental in building the foundations of Wolverton Community Energy. Prior to joining the Wolverton team, Jane spent seven years working with a diverse range of start-up and medium sized businesses in the field of co-operative and community business development. This included Calleva Community Energy where she joined the Board in November 2013. Jane’s early career was in marketing, strategy and business development honed with companies such as HJ Heinz and Seagram at international Director level.

We work with a range of different bodies across Wolverton and the wider Milton Keynes area.

Our property partners are organisations and businesses who are “hosting” one of our renewable energy installs, such as solar PV. We also have business owner partners who operate from these buildings normally on a tenancy or lease basis.

We work with a number of different local community organisations that help us identify those who are most in need. These organisations help us to identify opportunities for community investment that optimise our social impact.

Influencing policy and practice around community energy is one of our key aspirations, and we are lucky to be working with a range of organisations across and beyond Milton Keynes to create the kind of policy environment in which community energy can thrive.

We are always interested in hearing from potential new partners, so please get in touch if you are interested in working together.