Hello friends!
‘The stars are aligning for community energy, again!’
I am reaching out to make you aware of some short term funding and resources, and to ask if you want to be involved in a long term collective approach, to increasethe amount of small-scale, community-owned renewable energy projects, like rooftop solar on community buildings, or a community organisation starting a small wind turbine installation.
We have been working with friends across South East Scotland, including other regional Climate Hubs especially Neil Barnes, the West Lothian Climate Hub Manager – who is very experienced in community owned energy and related fields.
- Neil expertly delivered this session on: Developing Community Owned Energy Sites. It paints a robust picture of everything you might need.
- And I distilled it a bit into: Stakeholders Who Can Help Establish Community Energy Projects
Together, we are developing a collective proposition and approach.
Long term opportunities:
If you are interested in joining our collective approach, you can complete this form Community Sites for Development. All you have to fill out is your name and organisation details. The rest is optional, at this time. Even if you just express interest, it will help us build up evidence of demand, which can then become our pipeline of projects to support. We may be able to then negotiate additional support from a third party organisation to help you get the data for the rest of the form, and to help us all to go through the process of developing community energy sites.
Short term opportunities:
1. Community Energy Generation Growth Fund is for larger scale projects (50kw, which is about 100 solar panels, or 10 households), and with a tight deadline of 25th June. I don’t think we as a collective will be ready for this one this year, and it is meant for large scale projects. But, if we come together soon, we may be ready to get a collective up to ‘feasibility stage’ for a similar fund that will almost certainly be released next year. If interested in that approach, please fill out the Community Sites for Development to join in on our collective approach.
2. Community Buildings Fund is for up to 80% of development or installation costs for various renewable measures, for buildings which are owned by or long term leased by communities.
- Please see additional guidance; these slides from CARES: CARES Community Buildings Fund
- If you are going for this one even independently, we would still love for you to join our collective approach by completing the Community Sites for Development form. Perhaps we can help, in this year’s phase or next year’s phase, or perhaps you will be able to help some one else in the future.
I firmly believe that in the next couple of years, community owned energy projects will have another renaissance period. When this happened before, it happened in many successful siloes. There were many great blips of activity across the country. Perhaps, this time, we should move forward together?
All best
Bobby Pembleton
East Lothian Climate Hub Manager