The Government’s plans for a revolution in community ownership of energy schemes risks stalling before it has even begun, according to new research which found many community projects are being delayed or cancelled as a result of problems obtaining a grid connection.The report from Cornwall Energy and commissioned by Co-operatives UK and The Co-operative Group found issues around complexity and cost to be a major barrier to success for community projects, with connection costs largely being a “postcode lottery” and often disproportionate to the scheme, sometimes costing millions of pounds.
To overcome these barriers and realise the UK’s community energy potential it recommends: providing priority grid access to community energy projects; allowing them to pay back their connection costs over time; exemption from wider network upgrade costs; standardised cost assessments, which are then fixed; and improved communications and transparency from electricity grid network operators.
Many of these recommendations have already been introduced in Denmark and Germany, which consequently have a much higher proportion of community energy than the UK.
The report ‘Overcoming grid connection issues for community energy projects’ has been published to inform the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Community Energy Strategy, which will be published later this year.
Ed Mayo, General Secretary of Co-operatives UK said, “The DECC Community Energy Strategy provides a vital opportunity to bring about the community energy revolution we all want to see.
“Acting upon these recommendations to give communities priority grid access and assistance with costs should form part of a comprehensive framework of support. It could be the point at which we look back and say, that is when the revolution began”.
Mike Smyth, Chair of community owned renewable energy experts Energy4All, said, “Urgent action is desperately needed to address grid connection issues. When costs rocket to a point where schemes become untenable, this wastes months of hard work and thousands of pounds of scarce community resource.
“If the recommendations of this report are implemented fully it would go a long way to empowering communities to take control of their own energy future and lead to a significant jump in community project success rates.”
To inform the DECC Strategy, Co-operatives UK and The Co-operative Group have also endorsed a joint paper containing 10 recommendations backed by 26 organisations with a combined membership in excess of 16 million people.
In addition to calling for assistance with grid connection issues, it also calls for a higher Feed-in Tariff rate for community schemes and a shared ownership obligation on commercial developers to offer 20% of wind farms for local community investment.
Other endorsing organisations include the National Trust, Women’s Institute, National Farmers Union, Friends of the Earth and Transition Network. – nextgen
