Philip Ditchfield was by day a procurement expert for a pharmaceutical firm and by night harboured green tendencies. After watching The Age of Stupid he tired of hearing excuses such as: "There's no point doing anything because China's emissions are growing." By March 2010 he found himself persuading inhabitants of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, to become part of his 100 Solar Project, a community renewables buying group. To date, 185 households have registered, and 30 Marlow families now generate electricity through photovoltaic and solar thermal cells. "We've had calls from all over the country," he says. "I hope people outside of our seven-mile radius around Marlow will start their own scheme."

To this end he's compiled a best-practice document at transitionmarlow.org. He analysed 10 renewable energy companies using his procurement expertise before settling on freesource.co.uk. "We have enough homes to leverage a 12% discount, so everyone got a rebate after six months. But I'm still aiming for 100 homes, which would mean a rebate of 20%." This could "save 80,000kg of CO2 each year. Imagine if every town across the UK did that!"

But for now he is focused on Marlow becoming a destination where visitors notice a "disproportionate amount of solar". Naturally his house is a shining example. The family is the proud owner of nine Mitsubishi solar PV panels and two solar thermal panels for hot water. "I was offered free installation from installers as a perk of setting this up," he admits, "and as it cost £15,000, I'm sure my wife wishes we'd taken them up on it – but the purpose of a community buying group like this is being on the same terms, so I'm waiting for my rebate cheques, too…"

• This article was amended on 24 November 2010 to identify Philip Ditchfield correctly in the caption.

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