Community Energy Fortnight

Community Energy Fortnight 2023

Community Energy Fortnight (CEF) is a vibrant nationwide campaign reaching thousands of people and involving hundreds of organisations and it is a great opportunity to make your organisation's activities visible within the local community and show the rest of the sector, and important stakeholders, what community energy is all about.

This year's focus was on skill-sharing within the sector to help us do even better. CEF 2023 ran from 10 - 23 June.

Community Energy Fortnight 2023, sponsored by Thrive Renewables, was an extraordinary two weeks, filled with insightful events, informative webinars, engaging social media and exciting announcements.

You can browse the hashtags #CommunityEnergyNow and #CEF2023 to look back through Twitter activity from the Fortnight.

Events

There were a wide range of events during the Fortnight - so many of our members and supporters got involved with CEF 2023 by hosting events - thank you!

CEE partnered with Younity, Buckinghamshire Community Energy, the Big Clean Switch and School for Social Entrepreneurs to host a series of online events during the Fortnight. These included Younity’s volunteering platform launch, a funding application workshop, and Q&A sessions covering retrofit, ventilation, energy advice and REGOs.

We are thrilled that over 200 individuals from the community energy sector participated in these events to learn and share expertise. Our fantastic members and friends held at least 20 events during the Fortnight, including several site tours and lots more skills sharing; we are grateful to all organisations whose events added to the success of the Fortnight both online and in person.

All the events we hosted during CEF and any sent to us by members are now available on our YouTube Channel. Our CEF 2023 playlist allows anyone to revisit or catch up on the insightful discussions and share the learning with others in the sector.

Blogs

We love reading and sharing the sector's wide-ranging thoughts and opinions on the energy transition, social benefits, renewable technologies, policy, and much more, and we're grateful to the people and organisations who contributed blogs for CEF 2023:

Thrive Renewables launches new resource for community energy groups looking to build their own project
Taking a Community Approach to Low Carbon Heat, written by Kate Hutchinson, Senior Consultant, Reheat
Invest in clean community-owned energy to tackle the climate crisis, written by Bristol Energy Cooperative
Big Solar Co-op and Meyer Burger Collaborate on Ethical Rooftop Solar Installation in the UK, written by Big Solar Co-op
Introducing Grimsby Community Energy's Largest Community Share Offer Yet, written by Grimsby Community Energy
Labour's new 'Local Power Plan' will genuinely 'turbocharge community energy', written by Duncan Law
Our investors tell us community energy is simply the best, written by Whitni Thomas, Head of Corporate Finance at Triodos Bank UK
Power to the People: Saddleworth hydro project is an example of a nationwide movement to make Britain greener.
The government's ‘Powering Up Britain’: regurgitating existing policies and ignoring householders and communities, written by Jayne Carrick of the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre at Sheffield University, with Duncan Law of CEE.
GMCR planning largest community-owned solar array in Greater Manchester, written by Greater Manchester Community Renewables
Ethical Sourcing statement and blogs, written by Jon Halle of Big Solar Coop and Sharenergy

To make it easier for you to catch up on all the highlights, we've created a special blog that brings together all the key moments of Community Energy Fortnight 2023 in one place.