Great British Energy and the government have published a Local Power Plan with funding of up to £1 billion, to help support locally-owned clean energy generation projects.
DESNZ said community-owned energy “is the norm in other countries,” such as in Germany where two-fifths of installed renewable energy generation capacity is citizen-owned.
The announcement highlighted 53 early stage community energy projects backed by Great British Energy, with £5 million in funding from the GBE Community Fund (which covers England and is delivered by Local Net Zero Hubs). It also highlighted the company’s £255 million investment, with match funding from government, to install renewables at 250 schools, around 260 NHS sites and multiple military sites in England.
Minister for Devolution, Faith and Communities, Miatta Fahnbulleh said:
“Our Pride in Place programme backs communities with the tools and funding they need so that community centres can be built for neighbours to meet, football pitches can be maintained for local teams to play, and young people can pick up hobbies and make lifelong friends.
“The Local Power Plan takes this further – empowering communities by giving them ownership of their own clean energy and keeping the wealth it generates right where it belongs.”

Ed Matthew, Director of the UK Programme, E3G, said:
“Community-owned energy projects are essential to make sure ordinary people are the winners of the clean energy revolution. But until now, communities have been forced to develop clean energy projects with little help from government. Today’s announcement is an important first step to change that. The funding boost is welcome but there is potential to accelerate community energy even faster and help the British people to take back control of their energy by using public finance to catalyse private investment. This must become the top priority for Great British Energy.”

Simon Kerr, Head of Heat Networks, EnergiRaven, said:
“Once again, heat networks have been left out of a major government energy announcement. While community-owned renewables are important, it’s disappointing to see another missed opportunity to take advantage of what’s already there in terms of the huge amounts of heat that we’re wasting every day. Around half of the energy used in UK industry is wasted as heat; data centres alone could heat up to 6 million homes by 2035 – so why aren’t we looking at making the most of what we already generate as well as increasing capacity?
“Heat networks are exactly the kind of community asset the government says it wants to support: they are local, resilient, and can lock in lower bills for decades by using home-grown heat that would otherwise be wasted. Aa well-designed heat network can serve communities for 40 or 50 years, insulating them from volatile gas markets and repeated reinvestment cycles, and bring bills down as more heat sources are added. They can also act as a huge thermal battery to store excess energy from renewables that we often end up paying to turn off.
… If ministers are serious about community wealth, energy security and long-term bill reduction, heat networks need to be treated as core national infrastructure – not as an afterthought.”

Steven Agnew, Head of Policy, RenewableUK, said:
“Poll after poll has shown that people are overwhelmingly in favour of new clean energy projects, and that 73% of them support onshore wind farms. We know there are communities who want to go a step further by building their own clean energy projects too. Developers are already collaborating successfully with communities on projects such as the Lawrence Weston wind turbine in Bristol. The involvement of Great British Energy will help more communities take advantage of these opportunities.
“Supporting local communities to generate their own clean power will allow them to benefit directly from renewables whilst enabling them to play a key role in strengthening our energy security. As these new projects come online, they will push more expensive gas generation off the system, cutting electricity bills for everyone. “