£500,000 Fund to Help Community Energy Projects
Community energy projects are being given a boost today thanks to a new £500,000 Community Energy Peer Mentoring Fund announced by the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Up to £50,000 is being made available for each group who can demonstrate that they will use social action to mentor other smaller community projects and share skills to boost the number of projects across the country. The Fund will be administered by the Social Investment Business on behalf of the Government.
Currently, community energy groups work on a variety of different projects such as raising funds to get a solar panel on their community building or installing energy efficiency measures to help communities save money on their energy bills. The new funding is designed to help new groups get off the ground so they can start saving money and generating energy in their community. It will also help existing groups to professionalise, develop business plans and scale up their work.
Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd said: 'This fund will provide a real boost for groups doing fantastic work in community energy, and is key to our long term aim of helping other such schemes to spring up right across the country.'
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: 'This new fund will give aspiring communities access to the cash they need to help kick start hundreds of clean green energy projects. Not only can community energy projects boost local economies and drive forward green growth, they can also help save money on energy bills too.'
Caroline Forster, Director of Investment at the Social Investment Business said: 'We are looking for ambitious plans of social action to inspire new partnerships and encourage more communities to seed new community energy initiatives across England.'
To trial a new form of grant giving for this diverse sector, government will be keeping application criteria to a minimum and organisations will be invited to ‘pitch ideas’ to secure investment. Organisations can apply from today until 12 December 2013. Grants will range from £10,000 to £50,000.
Community energy organisations use social action to achieve a range of goals across the country, including: tackling climate change; helping people save money on their energy bills; generating energy; and clubbing together to get a better deal from energy companies.
The first tranche of money will be given out in February 2014 and organisations will need to spend their grants by March 2015.