Today the government announced that Great British Energy are providing funding to kick start support for community energy projects with £5 million in grant funding made available to support projects that will help communities generate their own clean power. This builds on the existing £10m Community Energy Fund, launched in 2023.

Whilst CEL welcome this new support to fund community energy projects, we agree with the concerns set out by Community Energy England (CEE) that “… this must be an interim measure since it will barely fund the 100+ projects that have already been approved by the CEF but are stalled for lack of actual funds. The £10m Community Energy Fund has to date kickstarted 171 projects, many of which are solar projects. These will ultimately deliver more than 300MW with very little additional investment from the public purse. The government must urgently ramp up its investment in community energy and unleash its potential as a key partner to unlock 8GW of clean power.”