Why community energy matters

Community energy

This Community Energy Fortnight, NICRE’s Natalie Partridge met with Hilary Anderson of the Rural Design Centre and Fiona Knox of Northumberland Community Energy Limited (NCEL) to discuss their work on rural community energy schemes through the CAIRN project. 

Community energy is gathering momentum across the North East. Drawing on their experiences of developing NCEL in Northumberland and helping to establish Durham Energy Association Ltd (DEAL) in County Durham, Hilary and Fiona share their reflections on why community energy matters, their top tips for others considering developing their own scheme, and their hopes for the future. 

Why community energy matters 

Asked why community energy matters, both Hilary and Fiona agree that resilience is a key factor. Reducing energy bills is an immediate concern for many rural community groups. Village halls and community buildings often operate on tight budgets, and fluctuating energy prices can affect their long-term viability. Fiona notes that community groups frequently approach NCEL because they want “to save money on their electricity bills so that they can plan for the future and feel more secure and resilient going forward.” 

Hilary has seen the same need through her work in County Durham. “The research that came out loud and clear was people just wanted to save money on their bills. Many village halls are facing uncertainty through this cost of living crisis and wanted some solutions.” 

Hilary and Fiona emphasise that the impact of community energy schemes goes beyond saving money, though. Fiona highlighted benefits that come from local empowerment. “Generation and conservation of energy locally is really empowering for that local community. It's building their resilience and sustainability of their community activity,” she explains. “I think there's a certain amount of pride in that community coming together and seeing that they can ‘mine’ their local energy and use it locally.”  

Community energy helps reduce carbon emissions, contributes to wider net zero ambitions and encourages communities to think collectively about their future, with both also seeing community energy as part of a wider regional story.  

Hilary describes it as an opportunity for communities to look forward rather than back to the past. “I'm from the North East. My grandfather was from County Durham. I live in County Durham and I'm really, really passionate about the community and where I live and building the trust, finding solutions to problems. As Fiona said, it's that community spirit. I think people feel so willing and wanting to make a positive change and it's great to be part of that change and to rewrite our new story. I think there's a lot of focus on our industrial past and the Durham Energy Council have now re-shifted that focus about clean energy and moving it forward. And I love that.” 

Fiona agrees, “the North East has got to champion and try and lead with the green energy revolution to support their communities to transition by bringing in jobs and increasing their skill bases.” 

“Let's rewrite our own destiny so we're not always just steeped in the past, you know, it's about moving it forward to something exciting,” Hilary says.  

Top tips for setting up a community energy scheme 

Having helped establish and grow two community energy scheme models, Hilary and Fiona have learned a lot about what works. Their top tips are: 

1. Following a clear process from the start: “I think following a very clear process from the start,” says Hilary. “If you don't have good project management skills, I imagine it will be very, very tricky to do it. So have a good guide." 

1. Be prepared to invest significant time in building relationships and maintaining community engagement. “Be prepared to put the time aside to do the legwork, to be visible with the community, to build up the community relationships and to continue that community dialogue all the way through the programme,” Fiona advises, “so that the community is on board, they know what's happening, and also so they can input into the process as well and help shape it.” 

1. Working with trusted partners and anchor organisations, something both Hilary and Fiona agree is essential. Partnerships with organisations such as Community Action Northumberland, Durham Community Action, Rural Design Centre, NICRE and the wider ACRE network helped create confidence in the projects and allowed them to reach communities through trusted relationships. 

1. Think carefully about finance and long-term sustainability. While grants can provide valuable support, Fiona warns, “don't rely just on external grant funding, but look at different financial models whereby you're looking at revenue generation as well as maybe working with private funding, enterprise, this sort of thing.”  

1. Seek specialist advice on governance. Hilary stresses the value of specialist advice when setting up legal structures and decision-making arrangements. “Make sure you get some expert advice,” she says. “The trickiest bit for us was getting the governance right.”  

1. Finally, both emphasise the importance of communication and public engagement. Sharing successes can inspire new communities, attract partners and maintain momentum. “Make sure you've got good communication so that you're putting out your good stories,” says Fiona. “That'll raise your profile, bring in the community and keep you connected with wider partners.” 

Behind all these lessons sits a common ethos that community energy needs to be developed with communities rather than for them. Fiona describes NCEL’s success as rooted in “grassroots action” and “strong partnership working”, while Hilary reflects the value of doing “loads of engagement at the start” to get to the point of formally setting up DEAL. 

Hopes for the future 

Looking ahead, both Hilary and Fiona are optimistic about the role that community energy can play in the North East and beyond.  

In the immediate future, Hilary wants to see more community buildings benefit from lower energy costs and improved resilience in County Durham, by growing DEAL. “I'd love to see more community buildings reducing their energy costs, becoming more financially resilient,” she says.  

For Fiona, success also means growing NCEL to include more community buildings. But beyond that, Fiona hopes to see community energy becoming a catalyst for wider local action in rural places.  

Fiona says, “at the moment you've got individuals in a community who've got their own solar panels and possibly don't see themselves as part of a community energy initiative. They just see themselves as private domestic. But if things do develop and communities start to be able to power share, and you've got a community building or a few big generators and then domestic solar around, suddenly they will start to see themselves as part of that family within that community.”  

Fiona adds “I'd love to see members of the NCEL family involved in other wider community initiatives where those community buildings are supporting energy resilience in their local community.”  

Longer term, both are passionate about involving the next generation. Hilary hopes community energy can encourage more young people to shape solutions and drive future innovation. “I think it's about getting young people in community buildings and getting them really interested in community energy, in developing the model in the future, and progressing it on.”  

Fiona shares that ambition and believes community energy could help create new opportunities for training and employment. “Our hope is to see DEAL and NCEL through their work supporting new apprenticeships with local installers, local contractors, and building that skills base in the North East,” she says. 

Overall, their shared vision is to make community energy a normal part of rural community life, beginning with Northumberland in Durham but inspiring rural communities across the country. 

Community Energy Fortnight is an opportunity to take stock on the fantastic progress over the past 18 months for NCEL and DEAL. There is a long way to go, but rural community energy is gathering momentum. For the CAIRN project, solar panels on village halls are at the forefront of this transition. But at its heart, community energy is about rural resilience, local benefits, and giving communities greater control over their future. 

“The long-term ambition is to make community energy the norm for the northeast, and for the country as well,” Hilary Anderson, Rural Design Centre.