Hackney Community Energy Fund Launch Round 2

This morning Community Energy London (CEL) attended the launch of the second round of Hackney Council’s Community Energy Fund.

Hackney’s newly elected Mayor Caroline Woodley and Councillor Mete Coban welcomed the new scheme followed by presentations from Jason Powell, Hackney Light & Power on the outcomes from round one and the details of round two,  CEL’s Chair Syed Ahmed on the community energy landscape in London [presentation here], a brief outline of The Hackney Empire project by Tom Campbell from Stokes Energy along with Etta Dale from Repowering, Dave Powis from HEAL. Etta and Dave then each ran a workshops: Retrofitting Your Building: Having A Plan and Financing Your Net-Zero Journey.

Check out our Twitter thread by clicking below:

New @mayorofhackney Caroline Woodley launching the new round of @hackneycouncil #communityenergy fund – “the fund is already decarbonising buildings in the borough and helping reduce energy bills”

— Community Energy London (@CommEnergyLDN) November 23, 2023

Key details of the fund:

There are two streams of funding: feasibility and capital.

• Delivery Stage 1 (Feasibility)
  • Grants of up to £12,000 are available for work to investigate the fabric of a building and identify what measures would best support the organisation to reduce bills and carbon emissions.
  • At the end of this stage, a full report detailing the opportunities and priorities for specific measures should be produced, which gets the project ready for its next stage of capital investment.
  • Although up to 100% of the costs of this work can be covered, we encourage groups to contribute to part of the costs if they are able to, as this will allow more organisations to be funded.
• Delivery Stage 2 (Capital)
  • Grants of up to £50,000 are available for the installation of energy efficiency and generation measures such as LED lighting, solar panels, energy storage units, heat pumps, etc.
  • Only a maximum of two-thirds of the total cost of the project will be covered. The remaining one-third needs to be sourced from other means, and community energy groups should help explore options, supported by HLP.
  • To be ready for a Stage 2 application, feasibility work must have been completed for the building, detailing the opportunities and priorities for specific measures, and planning applications must have been submitted where needed.

What will the fund cover?

• capital costs (to support the cost of a renewable installation or a deep retrofit)
• core costs (e.g.consulting fees, staff or office costs to support the project)
• project costs (e.g. venue hire, project worker)
• project management costs
• costs of community engagement activities relating to a project
• reasonable ‘contingency costs’ (on capital projects only)

• generating renewable energy, or
• reducing consumption of energy through retrofitting activities such as insulation, draught-proofing, heating and lighting controls, LED lighting, external door closers, etc.
• encouraging energy-saving behaviours whilst investigating opportunities for future carbon savings through a full assessment of opportunities with projected savings.

This fund cannot cover:

• fully-funded posts or general staff costs
• day-to-day running costs of an organisation
• maintenance of existing equipment
• workshops and engagement on their own
• contingency costs on feasibility studies
• measures that have an adverse air quality effect in Hackney

• Not-for-profit organisations who own or have a long-term lease on a building used by the public, who will tell us who they are and what their project idea is, will give us some basic details of their buildings and energy consumption, and tell us how their organisation and the communities that use their buildings will benefit from having a more energy-efficient space;
• Current or aspiring not-for-profit community energy groups, who will tell us who they are and will give us some details about their experience, capacity and skills to lead on partnership projects and support other Hackney non-profit organisations in their energy efficiency journey.

• Matched partners will be expected to work together to write a a joint application form
• Partners will have five weeks to co-develop an application for the Fund, and one of the partners will be expected to be the named lead of the project and receive and manage the grant.

You can find full details here.

Remember that both Hackney Council and Community Energy London are here to support you. Hackney Light & Power will be providing in-person and online sessions for prospective applicants (here) and CEL’s Peer Mentoring Scheme is still open – find out more here. You can also email CEL’s Coordinator – [email protected] – if you have any questions.