COMMUNITY ENERGY RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND UNLOCKING PEOPLE POWER TO BOOST RENEWABLES
There is great momentum behind the community energy movement. The REA is very supportive of communities seeking to take control over their energy futures and wants to do what it can to foster the sector - be it in power generation, heat, waste management, sustainable transport or energy efficiency initiatives.
As well as communities developing their own renewables schemes, Government would like to see commercial projects being part-owned by communities. In January’s Community Energy Strategy, the Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change Ed Davey stated that by 2015 he would like it to be the norm for interested communities to be offered the opportunity of some level of ownership of new, commercially-developed onshore renewables projects.
The voluntary approach is firmly favoured by both industry and Government. The REA, along with other trade bodies, community and industry representatives, participates in a Shared Ownership Taskforce, which published the draft voluntary framework in June.
The recommendation is that: “Commercial project developers seeking to develop significant renewable energy projects (above £2.5 million in project costs) for the primary purpose of exporting energy onto a public network should offer local people the chance to invest alongside the developer.”
The Taskforce’s recommendation is wider than the legislative approach, in that it encompasses heat generation and biomethane injection as well as wind, hydro and solar projects. Projects involving heat networks are also encouraged to make the offer. The REA hopes that heat as well as other energy networks can themselves become community-owned in future, as is starting to happen in Germany. However, the Taskforce agreed that heat networks in the UK are at too early a stage to warrant them having to consider shared ownership at this stage.
MANIFESTO ASKS
• Support the voluntary approach - That Government gives the voluntary approach a fair chance to become established practice
• Promote joint projects - That Government ensures shared ownership projects are catered for under the various renewable energy incentive schemes
To give this some focus, he went on to state that progress would be reviewed in 2015 “and if this is limited, we will consider requiring all developers to offer the opportunity of a shared ownership element to communities.” The enabling powers for legislation to make this mandatory are contained in the Infrastructure Bill.
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• Empower local authorities - LAs need to play a key part in stimulating and participating in shared energy ownership and need to be included in Central Government plans
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