The Government recently published its Community Energy Strategy. This is an attempt to kick-start the community sector and see it engage more comprehensively with renewable energy projects, energy efficiency and energy reduction.
All these will be needed if the Government is to meet its national and European targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
But this document has a special importance for local government. It envisages community groups undertaking projects in their areas that will impact on the local authority too.
The council will, of course, be the planning authority required to give planning consent; the carbon footprint of the area may be monitored by the authority and be subject to a target; the council may have other energy projects that it is pursuing itself that will be relevant.
What the strategy does not seem to do is to properly examine the interface between the local authority and the community sector. Interestingly, what I call ‘civic’ projects (ie those promoted by the council itself on its own land and in pursuance of its own goals), are excluded from the definition of a community project.
So lets be clear, we are not talking about council-led projects in the Strategy. Instead, the Government uses the example of a ‘group of people setting up their own solar installation’ or a community group putting a new boiler in the church hall.
Yet all the way through the document, there are references to the local authority and it becomes clear from this that local government is pivotal to the success of the community energy movement.
In my view, local authorities should seize on this opportunity to engage more strongly with their communities on energy issues.
It was recognised some time ago that a small amount of assistance from the town hall can have a ‘gearing’ effect in the community, particularly where a group is committed enough to come together to propose action.
The reason more don’t is due to the barriers, such as the complexities of planning consent, raising money and preparing business cases.
These are all things where a small amount of help would go a very long way.
So this is a golden opportunity for local government to help shape what will become a very important part of their future functions, namely the development of a decentralised energy system, operating on local renewable energy. It may even be the case that Government money is available to fund it.
Moreover, there can be no doubt that in many authorities, this work would very much fit with their own wider corporate goals and could also help them achieve their own green strategies.
If local authorities do not grasp this nettle, engage in the debate and make provision to help community energy become a reality (as it is on the continent), then they risk becoming marginalised.
Stephen Cirell is an independent consultant on low carbon and renewable energy projects