Since setting up in 2012, CfR has worked with local energy enterprises in over 40 localities, from villages to cities, to help deliver community energy generation ranging from solar installations on school roofs to one of the largest community solar farms in the UK. CfR’s expertise spans the entire process of MW-scale renewable energy project management, from business planning and feasibility development to construction, financing and operation.

As a Community Interest Company (CIC), any surplus made by CfR is re-invested in supporting further local energy projects.

£78million raised by CfR’s community energy clients to finance locally owned solar projects.

50,000 MWh of solar electricity generated by the community solar assets we manage, equivalent to the consumption of 13,500 homes.

£20million of surplus income projected over the lifetime of these community energy schemes, supporting the transition to net zero, alleviating fuel poverty, and funding local projects.

Natwest SE100 Index: In 2020, CfR earned a spot in the Natwest SE100 index, highlighting it as one of the top UK social enterprises. CfR’s recognition in the community energy sector includes winning the 2018 CEE Community Energy Champion and Young Community Energy Champion awards, and being shortlisted for the CEE community energy finance award in 2018 and 2019, as well as the 2018 and 2019 REA awards.

• Local energy enterprise strategy, business planning and start-up support​

• Project development: We can guide projects through every stage of development, from site feasibility assessments, planning consent, and landowner engagement to grid connection, power purchase strategy, and construction/operations contractor procurement.

• Joint ventures: Working with project developers to develop community ownership and joint venture models.

• Transition to local community ownership: Our expertise extends to managing the purchase of development-stage and operational projects from commercial developers into local community ownership.

• Financial strategy and procurement: Raising construction and long-term finance through strategic partnerships with commercial banks, social investors, and community-driven share/bond offers.

• Ongoing company and asset management​

• Innovative growth strategies: We specialise in developing and implementing business models that empower clients to deploy surplus income effectively, facilitating the expansion of local energy enterprises beyond their ‘anchor asset’.

CfR’s vision for technological transition is one broadly shared by many in Government and business: a low carbon energy infrastructure based on distributed renewable energy generation, energy storage and smart technologies, electrification of transport, retrofit of the existing building stock and high standards for new builds. This low carbon technology transition is well underway and will happen. But, will it happen fast enough and will it happen in a way which brings economic, social and environmental prosperity to communities, and minimises the potential negative impacts of rapid change?

CfR’s vision is for the low carbon transition to:

• Be shaped by and have the consensus of the local community.

• To be based on a plan which works back from the zero carbon end-game and sets out the scale and speed of change required.

• Be led by collaborations of local organisations including local energy enterprises, local authorities, community institutions and businesses.

• Create prosperity through local green jobs, local ownership of low carbon infrastructure, and reducing and localising energy spend which is currently a drain on local economies worth around £2,000 per head of population per year;

• Be an opportunity for positive system change – towards one which makes capital work for people and the planet and redistributes the sources of wealth creation.

• Be realistic, with plans for the adaptation, mitigation and reconciliation measures that will be required under the range of climate change scenarios.