How the government can maximise benefits for UK communities through the Local Power Plan

The UK government's target to deliver 8GW of local and community energy is a central focus for Great British Energy and will be vital for it to achieve demonstrable, short term progress. Scaling up community energy would have a transformative impact on the energy system by reducing reliance on foreign gas imports, lowering household energy bills and improving energy security. Through reinvestment into local communities, projects can also create significant social and economic benefits, boosting local economies, jobs and initiatives to address fuel poverty.

We've seen these benefits first hand through the community energy programmes Energy Saving Trust deliver for the Welsh and Scottish Governments. Since 2013, across Scotland and Wales, we have enabled the installation of 103MW of new community renewable energy capacity.

Knowing how effective these services are, we're calling for part of the £3.3bn previously promised for the Local Power Plan to be dedicated to setting up a national community energy support service in England, providing end-to-end tailored advice for all stages of project development.

This service would build on the Statement of Strategic Priorities to GB Energy published in September, which identified establishing ‘a specialist advisory service' as a key activity to enable community energy. While we wait for the detail of how this might work, we set out our thinking for an ideal advisory service model to successfully enable community energy across the UK.

The challenges: Scaling up community energy for everyone

As of 2024, there was 411MW of renewable energy capacity from 614 UK community energy organisations. While there's growing potential for community energy projects, increased investment and policy and regulatory reforms from the UK government are crucial to achieving the 8GW target. One of the challenges GB Energy faces is scaling up community energy and broadening participation at the pace needed for people to see benefits for the short and long term.

Despite the need to boost the level of activity, there are already some success stories of innovative community energy projects in England. Brixton based Repowering London was recently awarded funding through the Ofgem Energy Redress Scheme, for which Energy Saving Trust allocates payments. The project develops urban community solar projects, helping to lower energy bills and deliver but also putting its profits back into energy efficiency initiatives.

However, community energy isn't widespread and new groups in England looking to establish projects face a complex and time-consuming development process, often exacerbated by limited capacity of voluntary staff.

While there is some support available for community energy in England, including the Great British Energy Community Fund (GBE CF), it doesn't provide the comprehensive end-to-end support in place in the devolved nations. The pre & post-application process for the fund varies and while some local and combined authorities provide extra support, this isn't consistent across England.

Replicable models

Well established, successful frameworks for community energy support in place in Scotland and Wales, provide valuable learnings and readymade models for England. The Scottish Government's Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), delivered by the Local Energy Consortium, in which Energy Saving Trust is a partner, provides grants and low interest loans, alongside free, impartial advice. It offers toolkits and access to local development officers to advise on new project set up – from design review to costs and procurement support.

One example is Dundee Renewable Energy Society. With early support from CARES to assess feasibility and understand legal requirements, it developed a solar PV array, providing low cost power to the James Hutton Institute. Local residents were encouraged to invest and the solar meadow is expected to generate community benefits of £1.4m, with a focus on alleviating fuel poverty in the area.

In Wales, the Welsh Government Energy Service, which Energy Saving Trust has delivered in consortium with the Carbon Trust since 2018, similarly provides financial support and specialist advice on project development. The Energy Service provided end to end support for Egni Co-op to develop rooftop solar energy in over 100 solar PV sites across Wales. This included financial management support, enabling Egni to assess and demonstrate the viability of new business models. The project has successfully generated an estimated £312,000 in electricity bill savings for host organisations.

These are clear examples of what can be achieved when there is adequate support in place, combined with the right financial offering. So how could this be replicated in England?

The potential power of a national community energy support service in England

Our view is that the gold standard for England is a national community energy support service, acting as a simple single point of contact for communities to support the development process of renewable energy projects through expert, tailored advice, accessible resources, access to technical experts and project management support.

Growing a vibrant, resilient community energy sector in England will need support mechanisms that balance the benefits of national and local. Partnerships with existing local and regional community energy support infrastructure, such as through community groups or local non-profits, will therefore be key to successful delivery and ensuring there's streamlined access to more hands-on and locally specific support if needed. For example, a national service could engage with existing local based services such as those run by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE). Since 2022 CSE have worked with the Forest of Dean to help create a new community energy group in the area. Through engagement events, energy advice and small practical projects, CSE built residents' confidence and skills to develop their own solar schemes, with 39 solar panels installed on a community centre and a further 200kW system planned. The project shows how targeted support can stimulate community energy potential in areas previously lacking expertise or activity.

There are several clear benefits of a support service being coordinated at a national level. Firstly, it would ensure there's a minimum level of support across the whole of England and provide a consistent, national level suite of tools and services that local services can draw on. It would also help ensure cost-effectiveness by providing a centralised platform for shared resources and encouraging the sharing of good practice, aiding the sector's ability to replicate successful business models and allow more projects reach investment readiness. Oversight of the national community energy pipeline will also allow GB Energy to proactively monitor progress towards the UK's 8GW goal and help to get additional value by aggregating projects and attracting investors. 

Delivering the 8GW target would enable communities across the country to feel a true sense of ownership in the energy transition and see directly the difference clean power can make to their lives. Achieving this can only be done if the advice and support gap in England is sufficiently addressed.

Stew Horne is group head of sector intelligence & external affairs at Energy Saving Trust, which supports community energy projects through the programmes it delivers for Ofgem, Welsh Government and Scottish Government.

This article is sponsored by Energy Saving Trust.