Energy4All (E4All)
E4All is a leading facilitator of community-owned renewable energy projects, supporting the start-up, development and on-going operation of 35 co-operatively-owned community renewable energy projects since 2002. E4All works collaboratively with community-based groups, landowners, local authorities and commercial project developers, and we pioneered shared ownership in the UK.
E4All is owned by the community energy projects it supports, and our development services are supported by those members in our family who are aligned with our mission to find and develop new community energy projects. This means we can offer our services alongside grant funds to make them go much further, and we can do this because some of our services are provided at risk (they are only paid for if the project succeeds). By working in this way, we can offer our development expertise at the early stages of projects to make sure they are professionally developed on time, within budget, fully funded and handed over to the community with long-term support services.
In 2018, E4A was awarded a special award for “Outstanding Contribution to Community Energy” by Community Energy England and Community Energy Wales. Please get in touch to be directed to the right team member for your region.
Communities for Renewables CIC (CfR)
CfR is not for profit CIC with over 10 years of experience working with communities to develop local energy schemes, including using Community Energy Fund grants to cover project feasibility and initial development costs. CfR’s approach is to use the funding to get projects as far as possible through the development process, rather than just producing a feasibility report. CfR can provide follow-on at-risk funding to complete the development of projects and help with construction capital raising, contractor procurement and ongoing operations management. CfR has helped develop and finance over £70million of community energy projects and looks after 50MW of community owned solar across England.
To see some examples of community energy schemes that have been developed with Community
Energy Funding, and how CfR can help see: https://cfrcic.co.uk/10million-community-energy-fund/
Our Community Enterprise CIC (OCE)
OCE is an employee-owned CIC with most of their work around climate, biodiversity, and community energy issues – they help good people do great things.
OCE has developed an expertise in Community Shares, led by Directors Michael Beaven and Maria Evans. They have developed and supported share offers for community energy organisations MaidEnergy, Reading Hydro and Tollesbury Climate Partnership which collectively have raised over £2m. They also help projects get to the point of a share offer, and have been involved all the way from project idea to actual implementation (eg Advancing Innovation Community Energy Awards 2023 case studies).
OCE can provide support with financial modelling, project development, community consultation and engagement, developing Community Share offers and associated business plans, Standard Mark assessment where they have not been involved in developing a share offer, project management, mentoring and training, and development of new business models. If you’d like to discuss your ideas and needs, please contact them.
Scene Connect
Scene Connect are offering support to communities to apply for CEF funding and to support the delivery of energy projects. Sandy Robinson from Scene Connect has written an excellent blog with some tips on what makes a successful community energy project, as well as information about how Scene Connect may be able to assist your community organisation.
Scene Connect have many years experience in planning, designing, managing, and implementing community-led low carbon projects in the UK, and internationally, and can offer a range of services to community organisations to help develop projects. If you are interested in talking to Scene about your ideas please get in touch with them.
Sharenergy
Sharenergy is a not-for-profit co-operative that helps communities devise, build and run renewable energy generation. Sharenergy specialises in technical feasibility support for community groups, and our Development Team has extensive experience in energy data analysis and modelling for both renewable energy generation and heating systems.
However, Sharenergy’s expertise extends well beyond the simply technical: we understand the specific needs of groups operating for community benefit and have a solid grounding in the legal structures, regulation and indeed the culture of the community energy and wider environmental movement.
Details of the community energy projects we’ve supported are available on our website. Please contact Dave Green or Richard Lane to understand how we can support your CEF application and organisation.