CfR welcomes the pending launch of the £10million Community Energy Fund. The fund replaces the Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) which has been a key source of at-risk investment to help get new community energy projects off the ground. The key difference is that urban community energy projects are now eligible – something the community energy sector has been seeking for some time.
The Community Energy Fund provides grants of up to £40,000 to cover feasibility costs and a further grant of up to £100,000 to cover project development costs.
Parish and Town Councils, community benefit societies, CICs and charities can apply. Joint ventures are also eligible as long as 50% or more of the project will be owned by the local community.
CfR has over 10 years of experience in working with communities to develop community energy schemes, including using Community Energy Fund funding to cover feasibility and initial development costs. CfR’s approach is to use the funding to get the project as far as possible through the development process, rather than just producing a feasibility report. CfR can provide follow-on at risk funding to complete the development of projects and help with construction capital raising, construction contractor procurement and management and ongoing community company and asset management. We have helped develop and finance over £70million of community energy projects.
If you are looking for support with your Community Energy Fund project please get in touch. CfR can help with:
- Community energy project feasibility studies
- Community energy enterprise business planning and start-up and governance support
- Community energy project development (including site finding and feasibility assessments, planning consent, landowner engagement, grid connection, power purchase strategy and construction and operations contractor procurement)
- Community joint ventures with commercial renewable energy developers and councils
- Managing the purchase of development-stage and operational projects from commercial developers and councils into local community ownership
- Raising construction and long-term finance from banks, social investors and community share / bond offers
- Ongoing company and asset management, to manage all aspects of a community energy enterprise on behalf of its board of volunteer directors
CfR can either work as a consultant developer or we can work with you to develop the project as a joint venture. Our focus is large-scale community energy projects that make a material difference. CfR’s in-house expertise is wind and solar, but we can bring in specialists to help with other technologies.
CfR’s relevant experience includes:
| Plymouth Energy Community – Ernesettle Lane Solar | Feasibility, development, procurement and financing of a 4MW community solar array on a former landfill site. Progressed from feasibility to commissioning in 12 months. Initial development finance from the Community Energy Fund. CfR provided at-risk investment towards further development costs on a contingent basis. |
| Plymouth Energy Community – Chelson Meadow Solar | Technical and financial feasibility of a 13MW solar array on a former landfill site. Community Energy Fund stage 1 and 2 completed. Planning, land and grid secured and progressing procurement, construction and financing. |
| Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy – Solar | Feasibility and development of a 2MW community owned solar array on land adjacent to a large energy consumer. Work included technical and financial assessment of private wire connection and supporting commercial and technical discussions with the energy consumer. Community Energy Fund stage 1 and 2 completed. Land and grid secured. Submitted to planning. |
| Bath and West Community Energy – Solar | Feasibility and development 2MWp community solar array in Somerset. Work included addressing transmission network constraints, assessment of innovative solar racking solutions and incorporating a community orchard into the development. Community Energy Fund stage 1 and 2 completed. Land and grid secured. Submitted to planning. |
| Bretherton (Lancs) wind turbine – Solar and Battery | Business case, commercial partnership negotiation and community engagement strategy for a parish-wide local electricity supply model powered by a MW-scale wind turbine, 20MW solar array and community-owned battery. Community Energy Fund stage 1 completed. |
| Isle of Wight solar powered community bus EV charge hub | Feasibility and development of a solar+wind+storage powered charge station for a community electric bus fleet. Community Energy Fund stage 1 and 2 completed. Finance secured and being installed in 2024. |
| Meadow Blue Community Energy – Solar | Feasibility and development of a 2MW extension to an existing 5MW community solar array. Community Energy Fund stage 1 and 2 completed. Planning consent, land agreements and grid connection secured. |
| OVESCO – Solar | Business case and financing strategy for a 16MW solar array (working with partner engineering consultancy). Community Energy Fund stage 1 and 2 completed. Planning consent, land agreements and grid connection secured. |
| Devon Energy Collective wind | Business case and financing strategy for a 20 – 65MW community wind project on mining land in Devon. Community Energy Fund stage 1 completed. |
| Tamar Energy Community – Solar | Supported feasibility, development and financing (through loans and community share offer) of 300kW of community-owned roof-top PV. |
| Little Kelham (Sheffield) community solar microgrid | Helping the community of Little Kelham (150 households) take ownership of their communal infrastructure including solar microgrid, biomass heating system, broadband network and freehold. |
| Community housing scheme solar microgrid | Business case and financing strategy for a community solar microgrid serving a community land trust-owned housing scheme (working in partnership with specialist technical consultants). |
| Social landlord (Midlands) Solar | Business case and financing strategy development for deployment of solar PV, storage and demand response across a social landlord’s housing stock. |
| Isle of Sark wind, solar and battery microgrid | Managing staged procurement and financing process for a replacement power system (including generation and distribution) for the Isle of Sark. The new power system will be based on wind, solar, batteries and a diesel back-up. It will involve a complete replacement of the island’s electricity distribution network and setting up a new island-owned energy company. |
If you are looking for support with your Community Energy Fund project please get in touch.
01209 705423
The Community Energy Fund will be managed by the Government’s regional Net Zero Hubs. For more information see Community Energy England’s funding page:
https://communityenergyengland.org/pages/community-energy-fund/*