Community energy could turbocharge the energy transition – but only if urgent action is taken by the UK Government, according to a report published today by the parliamentary Committee on Energy Security and Net Zero and welcomed by sector body Community Energy Scotland.
The report, entitled Get connected: How community energy can turbocharge the transition, warns that if urgent action is not taken, community ownership of energy is at risk of being left behind.
Community Energy Scotland, the membership body for more than 400 community energy organisations across Scotland, has today welcomed the report, which sets out a number of priority actions including:
- Setting out a clear framework, including roles and responsibilities, to achieve the UK Government’s target of 8GW of local and community energy by 2030.
- Designating community energy as a strategic priority and removing the barriers to grid connection for those projects.
- Setting a guaranteed price for electricity from community energy
- Creating a stable community energy floor price mechanism for projects selling electricity to the grid to make projects financially viable.
- Establishing a regulatory framework to make it easier for community energy organisations to sell the electricity they produce locally.
- Updating procurement guidance to incentivise public bodies to buy community energy
- Giving communities the right to take a 20% shared ownership stake in onshore and offshore renewables.
- Agreeing a regulatory definition of community energy
- Ringfencing a proportion of the GBE Local Power Plan budget for true community energy projects (not just ‘local’ ones)
The recommendations in the report are aligned with multiple calls to action that Community Energy Scotland and its partners have issued to decision makers over recent years, with the aim of overcoming existing barriers and accelerating progress in the sector. Community Energy Scotland submitted written evidence to the inquiry and both the CEO and Chair also gave verbal evidence in London.
CEO Zoe Holliday said:
“Today’s report highlights the potential of community energy to have a transformational impact not only on our energy system but also on communities across the country by delivering a wide range of benefits locally – creating jobs and addressing local priorities like reducing fuel bills and building affordable homes.
“But the report is also clear that urgent action is required to unlock the potential of the sector. The government and its partners must immediately start the work required to implement the recommendations in the report. If it does not, we will have missed a once in a lifetime opportunity for transformation. The negative impacts of inaction cannot be overstated; they will be felt for generations to come.”
Calum MacDonald, Director of Point and Sandwick Trust, the UK’s largest community wind farm, and Chair of Community Energy Scotland, said:
“Communities across the country are crying out to see the economic benefits of green energy and they shouldn’t have to wait until 2030 or 2035 when they can see billions of pounds of wind farm profit going abroad every year which could be reinvested in the UK. That’s why we can’t have an ‘Energy Independence Bill’ that doesn’t also give local communities the means to achieve their own energy independence and to deliver community energy at scale, reinvesting the profits back into our local economies.
“The Government needs to deliver economic justice in energy policy with the same urgency and priority that it is giving to delivering net zero and this landmark report, agreed unanimously by the Committee, shows exactly how it should and can be done.”
