A new social impact energy grant scheme opens today for applications.
Centrica says its ‘Energy for Tomorrow’ scheme aims to support and empower entrepreneurs, particularly those from underrepresented groups, who have concepts and innovations to tackle climate change and lower energy bills for people and communities.
From today, EfT is calling for applications that focus on the scheme’s inaugural theme: ‘Innovations that help make people’s lives easier and more sustainable’. The aim is to partner with between six and ten organisations who have innovative ideas to help deliver affordable, accessible and reliable clean energy. Each organisation will receive a grant of between £100,000 to £500,000, provided over a period of up to three years. Priority will be given to smaller organisations with turnover of less than £1 million and to projects focused on the UK. And Centrica says it wants to encourage diverse groups and non-mainstream thinkers to come forward.
EfT wants applications from charities, CICs and not-for-profit and for-profit companies and enterprises with a clear social mission. These include organisations that are:
- Innovators – creating new solutions to reduce carbon emissions and changing the way society uses energy
- Helping people – to engage with their individual energy use, understand how their behaviours can impact the environment and demonstrate how things can be done differently
- Supporting communities – especially hard to reach groups, to collaborate and use energy in a more sustainable way, delivering real benefits to their local area
EfT said, “Regardless of the structure, we require the enterprise to demonstrate a financially sustainable business plan by the time our funding stops and have a sustained commitment to a core social impact.”
The scheme’s revenue is derived from the feed-in-tariffs of solar panels installed on over 250 schools across the UK.