Community Energy in the UK


According to Community Energy England, a not for profit organization which describes itself as the voice of the community energy sector, “Community energy refers to the delivery of community led renewable energy, energy demand reduction and energy supply projects, whether wholly owned and/or controlled by communities or through partnership with commercial or public sector partners.” (https://communityenergyengland.org/ )

In a report published in 2017, it referred to “222 community energy organizations throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland involved in 269 distinct energy activities …[owning] 121 MW of energy capacity, which has generated 265 GWh of energy since 2002”. The report points out that the “self-reported nature of the exercise means that the study is not exhaustive” (another estimate of the number of community energy organizations will be given below) and goes on to claim that “The sector is at risk: unprecedented reductions and early retractions of subsidies and tax incentives are negatively impacting on the viability, and subsequent success, of projects throughout the community energy sector.” (https://communityenergyengland.org/pages/state-of-the-sector-report)

A 2015 UK government report says that “There are many examples of community energy projects across the UK, with at least 5000 community groups undertaking energy initiatives in the last five years.” (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/community-energy)

Even if we consider only those community groups reported in Community Energy England’s  2017 report, we may conclude that the sector is of interest, and the risks referred to worth investigating. These risks, and some ideas which might help to resolve them, will be the subject of what follows.

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