Government vision needed to revolutionise community energy schemes
‘Constituency voices: realising the potential of community energy’ says there’s great enthusiasm and huge potential for community energy around the UK. But lack of government support is making it hard for community groups to get their projects off the ground.
The study into how community energy is working in three constituencies showed that, despite enthusiasm and strong community support for ideas, communities are being demoralised and obstructed by a lack of clear policy and restricted access to finance.
The government is now devising a community energy strategy and Green Alliance has published its recommendations for action in 'Constituency voices', summarising the findings of the workshops held with MPs in Edinburgh, Sheffield and Wells, Somerset.
Among its recommendations for the strategy, the report calls on the government to:
Strengthen national policy by setting a clear, ambitious vision for community energy in the UK, considering communities explicitly in the design of energy policies and schemes and reviewing how the Renewable Heat Incentive could better support community initiatives.
Improve finance options by providing start up funding to help groups get projects off the ground, exploring the potential for the Green Investment Bank to provide accessible finance and working with banks on financing community projects. It should also be easier for community projects to access income, such as feed-in tariff payments, alongside other funding streams.
“There is a real interest in community energy in my constituency," says Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, "but complex and risky development processes are making it harder than it should be. Sheffield Renewables worked tirelessly for four years to set up a hydro scheme, but had to scrap the idea when recent changes to Environment Agency requirements made it too expensive. This shouldn’t be happening – we should be actively encouraging these projects and making it easy for a community group to realise their ideas.”
Tessa Munt, MP for Wells, adds:
“As a rural county, Somerset provides an ideal location for a variety of community energy projects. It is inspiring to see groups such as the Wedmore Community Power Co-operative pursuing their ambitions, but local support for community projects could be much higher. We need to see more understanding of energy issues amongst local councillors and the wider community, policies such as feed-in tariffs should be designed to work for schemes of this size, and local planning tools should work for the benefit of the community energy projects.”
Mike Crockart, MP for Edinburgh West, says:
“Although the Scottish Government’s community energy ambitions and support is impressive, more could be done to help local groups to realise the opportunities we have here in Scotland because of our wealth of natural resources. We should certainly work to expand and simplify the finance options for community energy. The Green Investment Bank, based here in Edinburgh, may be able to help in setting up a fund to provide accessible finance for these schemes.”
