Celebrating the end of AURORA

We came together to celebrate the AURORA project and to express our thanks to Emma-Jayne, Amy and (in absentia) Megan, for all their work and support for Forest Community Energy over the past three years.

Ending on 30th November 2025, AURORA was an EU Horizon 2020 funded project delivered by pilots across Europe in Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark, and the UK with the aim of driving forward citizen-led action on energy in local communities. The UK pilot site is the Forest of Dean and here the project was run by a partnership between Forest of Dean District Council and the Centre for Sustainable Energy.

Some of the things achieved in this time include:

• Community-owned solar installation on the Sling Community Hub, working with Gloucestershire Community Energy Coop, enabling this community space to lower their energy bills, reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and allow the community to get a return on their investment. 
• Pilot and launch of a 30-camera thermal imaging loan service in libraries, community hubs and schools across the district, in collaboration with Forest of Dean District Council.
•  Hosting energy cafes and drop-in information events for the community to learn more about solar and getting homes winter-ready. 

We made a slide-show of photographs from the three years as a reminder of all the people, places, and events that have happened over that time.

Find out more about the AURORA project: https://www.aurora-h2020.eu/fod-home/