A BID to transform York's renewable energy output will be launched in the coming weeks.

A conference on September 12 will see plans put in place to make roof tops across the city into a community-owned solar farm.

The "Powering The City" series of talks on community energy will hear from successful renewable energy projects across the country, including wind, solar and hydropower schemes, and will discuss what can be done in York.

The York Community Energy (YCE) is currently looking for community-owned buildings with suitable roof tops to be involved in a first wave of solar installations.

Richard Lane, chairman of YCE, said: "York, like most places in the UK, has significant potential for both solar and wind generation.

"We know that we need to act fast to prevent dangerous climate change. We need to get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and we want as many people as possible to benefit from this.

"Community-owned generation is a revolution - we can collectively take responsibility for the power we use, clean it up, and benefit from it financially."

The event, at the Friends Meeting House, in Friargate, will feature presentations from Sheffield Solar, Pennine Community Power and the Whitby Esk Energy hydropower scheme, followed by a question and answer session.

They will be chaired by YCE member Anthony Day, an international conference speaker on sustainability.

He added: "Solar energy will be an essential part of the energy mix for the future. It's clean, it's cheap and it's secure because it's home-grown energy, not imported from thousands of miles away like oil, coal or gas. And advances in battery storage mean we can benefit from solar power when the sun isn't shining."

The conference runs from 1pm to 5.30pm on Saturday, September 12, in York.

It is free to attend and open to everyone but attendees are asked to book online via the YCE website at http://yorkcommunityenergy.org.uk/conference.