Community energy

Stage 2 funding will allow the Club to progress a planning application to develop a local microgrid at the club grounds, including 1.5 MW ground mounted solar PV, 50kW Li-Ion battery storage, 150kW Compressed air energy storage system, and Dual point EV chargers.

Developing this project means the Club can meet the increasing demand and cost for heat and power and provide a better service to the local community. Investment in the energy project can be recouped through savings and other revenue generating opportunities that an investment in a grid upgrade would not achieve.

Bonsall Energy Group wishes to look into the feasibility of wind turbine technology over a range of 0.4 to 2.0MW rated turbines and one solar ground scheme in Bonsall. The generators would have a connection to the DNO grid, possibly via HV substations. The aim of the scheme would be to trade electricity with, and between, local community generators, householders, and businesses.

Brassington, in common with other villages within the Derbyshire Peak District, is not connected to the mains gas grid for various historic and economic reasons. Most of the houses are heated by oil or LPG, though a number still rely on solid fuel and electric immersion heaters for their hot water.

The purpose of this project is to develop the recently completed feasibility study into a worked up and fully costed design proposal. Following the successful completion of the Stage 1 feasibility study completed through the Rural Community Energy Fund, Brassington Community Heating CiC will continue the project through Community Energy Fund.

The council is looking to investigate a large community owned solar farm. Spanning 70 acres of Grade 4/5 agricultural land, Park Farm Claverdon has a National Grid substation on the land, offering easy grid connectivity. It nestles discreetly along a railway line, invisible from all of the community’s vantage points. It is the perfect location for a community solar farm.

Crowle Parish is located in rural Worcestershire and does not have access to the gas grid. Homes are heated by electricity, oil, gas, and other forms of fossil fuels.

The project will investigate a 3mW solar farm supported by 4mWhs of battery storage to generate electricity approximately equivalent to 120% of demand from the c600 homes in the Parish and neighbouring villages.

Identified a primary site located on a 6-acre plot of land owned by the Parish Council. Early analysis suggests financial viability, community support, and that there is a nearby 11Kv grid line that should provide a suitable point of connection.

A 50kW Archimedes screw turbine hydroelectric installation is proposed adjacent to the historic weir at Darley Abbey Mills north of Derby, utilising the existent historic intake infrastructure of the Evans’ Paper Mill (building now demolished).

Based on the historic flow data, the electricity generated over one year is calculated to be in the region of 330,000 kWh/year (equivalent to the energy needed to power 89 houses) via private wire connection into the main switchboard at Darley Abbey Mills. It is anticipated that the Mills (now divided into a complex of small businesses) could harness most of this power.

The hydro power project intends to supply adjacent mill businesses with renewable electricity, to return surplus profit into community projects (for example for retrofit and other climate related projects), to increase net zero education and awareness locally, and to explore related potential for EV charging at adjacent car parks within a conservation area.

The project proposed by Derbyshire Dales Community Energy is for the Bakewell golf club to provide a feasibility study for ownership of ground-based solar arrays, a wind turbine, rooftop solar, and air source heat pumps.

DDCE is a well-established organisation that has successfully carried out a Stage 1 feasibility study under the Rural Community Energy Fund. This study helped to evaluate the potential for renewable energy projects within the Dales region. This led to the successful installation of two solar arrays within Matlock.

The project would be innovative by producing heat to the main clubhouse, adjacent cottage, and industrial unit by heat pump or a biomass plant. Identifying renewable energy opportunities through small-to-medium scale wind turbines and solar arrays. Two 7kW EV charging stations are also proposed for the community’s use.

The project would be an ambitious programme of installing 2MW of PV on schools across Leicestershire within three years. These arrays would be funded by community shares to alleviate the cost of energy for schools.

The feasibility study would assess the 260 school sites and provide a PV model of shortlisted host sites. The project strategically dovetails into Leicestershire County Council’s Net Zero Strategy and helps to deliver the Innovate UK funded Leicestershire CAN (Collaboration to Accelerate Net Zero) project (Pathway Places Demonstrator).

The Grimsby Onshore Wind Project will assess feasibility for onshore wind at four locations around North East Lincolnshire. The process will upskill Grimsby Community Energy to deliver the projects and operate long term. The group has ambition to install between 80kW and 1.2MW across 1-6 turbines depending on the outcome of the feasibility studies.

The aim of this project is to work with three faith-based community organisations on developing their energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprint, and creating greater awareness on climate action as well as outreach events and online information sessions.

This project seeks to address the ongoing exclusion of minority communities from accessing information about the climate crisis, fuel poverty, grant aid for energy efficiency improvements, and other services which are presented solely in English.

Leicester’s wider population have on average low levels of literacy and high levels of deprivation and are excluded from climate action by range of seen and hidden barriers.

The project is a feasibility study into the “Wise Grid” concept allowing low voltage grids to incentivise embedded generation and storage by maximising energy value while balancing the grid to avoid morning and evening peaks.

The project will take place in the Meadows, Nottingham, using the members of a community group and existing assets. If feasible, the new technology will be an online platform managed by the Meadows Community Interest Company (Mozes Wisegrid CIC) allowing members to register and participate in peer2peer energy trading within their local area.

This pilot demonstrator will complete a technical and social feasibility study to offer deep retrofit options, assessment, and design work for a whole street of 26 homes, which includes Registered Providers, private landlords, and owner-occupiers.

The whole process – including assessment, design options, decision-making – will be filmed to powerfully communicate and de-mystify retrofit. This will be invaluable for training, leading into support for up-skilling. It’s also critical to build trust, credibility, and give wider replicability and scalability.

Sherriffhales Community Energy currently own and operate a 3.2MW community solar farm to the west of Sheriffhales, Shropshire. They have been successfully distributing its surplus incomes into the community since 2016.

SHCE believes that they can increase their impact in the community by leveraging their main asset, renewable electricity, to their advantage in a green transition by supplying their power directly to consumers via an EV charge station, consisting of four 150kW chargers.

Bishop’s Castle is an off the gas grid town of 600 houses, plus a leisure centre, a community college, a sawmill, and various small businesses. For the older properties in the centre of the town it would be very difficult to replace the oil boilers with individual heat pumps.

This project aims to deliver low carbon heat to the SpArC Leisure Centre, the Community College, and at least 100 homes in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire. The heat would be generated by air to water heat pumps, and most of the electricity required would be generated by a 1MW wind turbine and 500kW of solar.

This project aims to establish a Community Energy Company in Lincoln, focusing on the contrasting areas of Long Leys and Sincil Bank. The goal is to create a sustainable and affordable local energy supply through community investment in public land.

It is proposed to deploy community-owned renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, battery storage, or heat pumps, to generate local energy. This project aspires to power hundreds of households, significantly reducing energy costs and carbon emissions in these neighbourhoods.

The project will highlight the opportunities and requirements for renewable energy generation in two contrasting areas of the city. It will explore what is required to set up a community energy company, potential financial models and level of community interest and capacity.

The project offers a unique setting with two areas with differing topography, geology and natural resources, housing type and tenure as well as contrasting socio-economic characteristics, located within a short distance from the Central Business District of Lincoln.

Staffordshire Community Energy (SCE) have secured funding in order to undertake a comprehensive feasibility study to determine the viability of the deployment of community owned renewable energy assets on NHS buildings in Staffordshire.

The objectives are to reduce carbon emissions, alleviate fuel poverty, and reduce hospital admissions for the chronically sick and to support the development of the referral systems to fuel poverty charity, Beat the Cold.

This project will create a long term management strategy to identify measures that will help Starley Co-op develop a route map to Net Zero by 2050. The project will support 65 co-op households decarbonise their homes and save money on their energy bills.

The project will be 100% community-owned, directed and delivered by Starley Co-op who own and manage the homes. Starley Co-op have carried out a full Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and stock condition survey of their properties. Understanding the condition of their properties has allowed the Co-op to engage the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (CCH) Retrofit team who have supported with some early-stage consultancy support.

Through the Community Energy Fund project, Starley could become an energy generator and sell excess community-owned power to high-demand customers. Under the EEOS scheme, Starley could trade ‘energy credits’ with other Obligated Parties by project managing retrofit upgrades on their own stock.

Evaluating untapped potential sources of revenue like this is an approach previously unseen in an urban-centred UK community housing co-operative.

The proposed project is a combination of photovoltaic ground mounted panels (80kW) and growing food sustainably between the panels, located in a field with an existing wind turbine in Hockerton.

There will be a functioning electrical system and a demonstrator of how to increase the overall output by growing food in the same area as the solar array. The project will also show how farming techniques can be used to mitigate water runoff, thus reducing risks of flooding.

The project will be based in the market town of Bewdley and will investigate the potential of a water-based district heating network. This town has been selected due to the locality of the River Severn and three high-usage sites with potential of extending to heritage and listed buildings. The area is also affected by fuel poverty and households have a lower income.

This project will link into the Heat Networks Delivery Unit, community share offer, and other private/public sources to fund the capital costs of the 2MW heat pump. This heat pump will provide a heat demand of c.10,000MWhours per annum which is enough to heat 1000 homes.

The Village Green Wilsford Net Zero Project has been created to alleviate fuel poverty and showcase a smart community energy model for achieving carbon reduction cost effectively.

The proposal involves an innovative scheme with ground source heat pumps behind the village hall in addition to solar panels both on the hall roof and on top of an eight-bay EV parking canopy on land opposite affordable homes.

The smart EV chargers (22kW) would be available for use by anyone in the village. These shared resources would all be connected by a private wire from an energy centre with battery storage in the village hall and connected to the neighbouring homes. There would be an additional DC 50kW fast Vehicle-to-Grid EV point at the village hall.