You have until teatime on Friday to do something simple that will really help an exciting initiative in Bradford. A small not-for-profit community group is doing all it can to help people out of fuel poverty and to reduce the amount of CO2 produced in the district.

Bradford ecoPower is a local community project in the Heaton and Frizinghall area that is seeking funding to help install solar panels on a number of buildings. In the first year, they will be on two churches and two mosques then, later on, houses.

British Gas is offering £500,000 in the first year, rising to six times that amount by year three, and there is a very competitive bidding process. The majority of groups are aiming to install solar panels, but a few are looking at hydro power and wind turbines.

The first round had more than 1,000 applications, and it seems that the selection to proceed to stage two depended on the number of supporters that each scheme could muster. The website shows that other Bradford applicants, such as Wilsden Village Hall, Peel Park’s BMX Bandits and Sedbergh Youth Centre, didn’t have enough supporters registered to make the shortlist, but Bradford ecoPower, with 292, did.

However, the shortlist contains a list of 100 groups, spread all over the UK, and a number of them already have more than 700 supporters, particularly those proposing to install hydro schemes. Indeed, Bradford ecoPower is ranked 27th at the moment, and there is a long way to go if it is to squeeze into the top ten as that position is held by a Hornsea school with more than 100 more supporters.

The closing date for the final application of the plans is this Friday, and then the top ten schemes will be announced. The decision on which of them receive funding will depend on nation-wide voting by the public – in X Factor fashion, I suspect – so the next step is to make sure that the Bradford scheme is included in the last ten.

This means hundreds more supporters, and it is a simple matter of logging on to energyshare.com/the-heaton-frizinghall-energy, and following the instructions. It will probably need close on a thousand supporters to be sure of being part of the final process.

Bradford now has more than 100 solar panels on ordinary houses, and on a mosque, the cathedral and the university, with the promise of more.

You can find out how from the Council’s renewable energy workshop in City Hall on the morning of Saturday, October 8. To book a place, e-mail eccu@bradford.gov.uk, or ring (01274) 432229.