The Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral project has been selected as one of 20 communities to receive government funding worth up to £500,000.
The Cheshire village, with a population of around 1000, learned today that it was guaranteed financial support via the Department of Energy and Climate Change's Low Carbon Community Challenge, a two-year investment programme to catalyse emission reduction activity at community level.
Ashton Hayes' funding will be used primarily to transform the village's local school into a mini power station, equipping it with a combined heat and power (CHP) system and a host of renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics.
Surplus energy will then feed into the local grid and generate a portion of the community's electricity needs.
The project could be the first in the UK where a community-based renewable energy power plant utilises existing electricity grid infrastructure.
Since 2006 Ashton Hayes has been attempting to become the first in the England to achieve carbon neutrality.
The democratic project, which is run via the parish council, was devised by local resident Garry Charnock, who works as a director at Helsby-based RSK Group, a multi-disciplinary environmental consultancy.
Based on annual surveys carried out by the University of Chester, it is estimated that domestic CO2 emissions have fallen by 23% to date.