Over £5.5 million will support 46 community groups in Scotland to install energy generation schemes and benefit communities, an announcement from the Scottish Government stated today. This combined grant funding comes from the Scottish Government and GB Energy and is being delivered by the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme’s (CARES) Community Energy Growth Fund manged by Local Energy Scotland.
Some of our members who will benefit from the fund include:
- Arran Community Renewable’s work on building community-owned Glenkiln Solar Farm
- Edinburgh Community Solar Co-op’s Edinburgh Solar Co-op phase 3
- Eigg Electric to support their work towards decarbonising the island by 2030
- Fife Communities Climate Action Network CIC’s Fife Community Renewables Project
- Huntly Development Trust’s project to generate up to 20MW of potential wind, solar and green hydrogen
- Radio City Association Ltd’s Kilbirnie Community Hydro
- Selkirk Regeneration’s Selkirk Solar PV feasibility – Solar Rooftop Club
- Strathblane Community Development Trust’s SREP feasibility study
- Tayvallich Initiative Ltd’s Mary’s land solar project
- The Richmond Fellowship Scotland’s development of a solar energy project
- Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn’s West Coast Community Energy Project
Zoe Holliday, CEO at Community Energy Scotland said:
“It’s fantastic to see this year’s significant increase in CARES funding for community owned electricity generation projects being allocated to communities across Scotland, demonstrating the ambition and potential of the sector in Scotland. We look forward to continuing to build the pipeline of new projects coming forward in Scotland through our involvement in the new CARES Community Energy Launchpad support service. I would encourage any community groups interested in taking forward a new sustainable energy project to contact our team to find out more.”
Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin, said:
“This funding, for stand-alone generation projects, responds to the needs of local groups and has the potential to lever in significant funds for communities by providing the ability to earn money from their projects by, for example, selling the excess energy generated back to the grid. It will also play a key role delivering a just transition to net zero, whilst supporting a greener, fairer future for Scots. “To further ensure communities see the benefits of the renewable energy transition, we know more can be done. That is why we are calling on the UK Government to go further by mandating offers of shared ownership and to introduce a mandatory community benefits scheme for mature onshore technologies.”
Providing a much needed boost to communities with energy generation plans, the funding comes with practical support where needed and will enable communities to grow their local economies as well as collectively reduce their carbon footprint.
