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Cymraeg / Welsh

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About the Fund

Supporting Arts Factory: £26,000 Awarded for Solar Panels to Make Community Spaces Greener

Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund is delighted to award £26,000 to Arts Factory to install solar panels and battery storage at Maerdy Community Centre, part of a wider £91,000 project to make the building more energy efficient and sustainable for the long term.
 
The funding will help Arts Factory reduce reliance on the National Grid, produce clean renewable energy, and improve energy security for the community centre. Already committed to a phased sustainability plan, Arts Factory has upgraded lighting to energy-efficient LEDs and is planning further energy-saving measures. The solar PV and battery system will complement these improvements, enabling the centre to store and manage energy efficiently, cut costs, and operate more sustainably for future generations.
 
Maerdy Community Centre is at the heart of the upper Rhondda Fach, serving communities across the Rhondda Fach, Rhondda Fawr, and North Cynon areas. It provides vital local services, including a café staffed by volunteers (many with additional needs), social and wellbeing activities, youth projects, volunteering opportunities, and community events. This investment will help ensure that these essential services continue in a greener, more cost-effective, and environmentally friendly space.
 
“Arts Factory is doing incredible work to make their community spaces sustainable, accessible, and welcoming. By supporting this solar panel project, we’re helping reduce energy costs and carbon emissions, while ensuring the Maerdy Community Centre continues to serve the community for generations to come.” – Shayla Walsh, Pen y Cymoedd
 
“Once again Arts Factory are grateful for the support and trust that Penycymoedd Windfarm put into us by awarding us this grant which forms part of a much larger project to make Maerdy Community Green and fit for purpose for years to come for the community it serves. Without great funders locally enabling community organisations to grow and flourish none of this would be possible.” – Arts Factory
 
This funding represents a real investment in both the environment and the local community – making a well-loved facility greener, more efficient, and better equipped to meet the needs of its users.

The Fund was established by energy company Vattenfall to benefit the communities hosting the Pen y Cymoedd wind farm across the upper Neath, Afan, Rhondda and Cynon Valleys. It exists to support local people, groups and organisations to invest in themselves, their ideas and their communities.

The Community Fund has a substantial annual budget that is index-linked, meaning it increases in line with inflation. As an example, this equated to around £2.5 million in 2025. The Fund will continue to support communities until 2043, creating long-term opportunities for growth, resilience and positive change.

The Fund is managed by an independent, locally based not-for-profit Community Interest Company. It is overseen by a Board of Directors with strong local connections and delivered by a small but dedicated staff team with extensive community engagement experience. We are here to help ensure the Fund delivers on the vision and priorities of local communities.

Over the next 10 years, the Fund is focusing on investment in people, places and businesses — helping the Valleys to thrive, driving bold ideas, supporting transformation and creating lasting impact for current and future generations.

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