ENER-G helps spark community energy revolution

ENER-G is sponsoring a new groundbreaking guide on CHP and district heating, being, which is set to become the ‘how to manual’ for community groups, councils and developers, interested in generating their own energy and slashing bills in the process.

 

Community Energy - planning, development and delivery, a Combined Heat & Power Association (CHPA), LDA Design and Town & Country Planning Association (TCPA) guide, outlines a straightforward step-by-step approach to the challenge of creating a successful and efficient community energy scheme.

 

Hundreds of pioneering groups across the UK are already showing how it can be done. But thousands of others are still in dark, wondering how to get started. The guide has been created to help steer them through the process to success, allowing them to play a full role in the community energy revolution taking root across the country.

 

There are significant benefits of DIY energy generation for communities – slashing CO2 emissions and saving thousands of pounds on energy bills. Schemes also often reinforce social bonds across a community, bringing ownership and boosting wider environmental awareness.

 

The guide focuses on the stages of development – rather than specific technology options – to make sure, whichever opportunity is pursued, it is delivered for optimum benefit. It has also been authored to ensure it is of relevance for a wide ranging audience including sustainability and energy officers, through to planners and community groups, alongside others such as property developers and housing associations.

 

It is designed to assist potential energy project developers to: 

• Translate energy opportunities into financially viable and deliverable low-carbon projects;
• Understand the stages of developing an energy project and who is involved along the way;
• Identify the most appropriate and best fit business and financial models for their scheme;
• Understand, create or influence energy maps for use as a resource to inform projects, master plans or development plans;
• Gain an understanding of energy use in buildings and developments and a range of energy sources that may be at their disposal;

 

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) is also working to deliver its Community Energy Online (CEO) website which will provide advice on a wider range of technologies. The site, which will be launched in the next few weeks, will draw together a range of straightforward, reliable and trusted content for communities and local authorities. The first online resource of its type – as a single ‘go to’ source of information on how best to unlock the potential of community energy – CEO will act as a hub for existing and new resources about community energy.

 

The guide is being formally launched along with the Homes and Communities Agency’s District Heating Good Practice: Learning from the Low Carbon Infrastructure Fund, on 25th November at Integrated Energy 20101, the CHPA’s annual conference.

 

Authors, Michael King, Associate of the CHPA and Chairman of Aberdeen Heat and Power Company, and Robert Shaw, Sustainability & Climate Change Director at LDA Design, hope the guide will convert ambition into action, helping individuals and community groups’ take-up the challenge of local energy generation.

 

“Fulfilling the binding commitment that the UK has made to deliver significant increases in renewable energy generation will be difficult to achieve unless more of us become energy generators as well as consumers,” says co-author of the guide Robert Shaw. “But perhaps more importantly the long term financial savings can be just as substantial as the environmental benefits community energy schemes provide.”

 

“Schemes don’t have to be large or complex. Even small projects can generate a good income and grow over time; all for the benefit of the local community – it’s true localism in action,” adds co-author Michael King. “Having undertaken the challenge myself, I understand that creating a community energy scheme requires the right approach. Our guide and the other tools soon to be launched promise to be invaluable in guiding others to success.”

 

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the TCPA outlined the importance of community energy: “Adapting our villages, towns and cities to the impacts of climate change is one of the greatest challenges society faces today. Local communities are at the cutting edge of this challenge because they have responsibility for a whole range of decisions that are vital to our collective future. The Community Energy guide shows how local communities, local planning authorities and private developers can work together to ensure that we achieve positive solutions on energy demand reduction and renewable energy.”

 

Community Energy - planning, development and delivery is a free and fully accessible a information resource. Although suitable for all low and zero carbon technologies, the guide’s emphasis is on district heating and combined heat and power. These schemes can be more complex to bring to fruition yet generally offer substantial benefit and form a key part of the decentralised energy mix.