Community Energy South (CES) was set up in 2013 to support the network of community energy groups in the South East of England. We support communities and local authorities to deliver net zero together.
CES acts as a catalyst and capacity building Hub supporting Community Energy groups to become resilient and to work effectively to support their communities. As part of this they provide training, advice, project management and a best practice, skills sharing network to enable community energy groups to develop green energy projects and ground level carbon reduction, and to offer energy efficiency advice and support for the vulnerable to make energy affordable for all. CES is currently supporting 42 community energy groups across the South East.
Our vision is that every parish, town and municipality will have their own energy champion or network of energy champions who will support and advise their communities on powering up community owned renewable energy generation and powering down energy use, through whole systems retrofit and local area energy planning.
With 70 GW of solar planned for 2035, we would like to see communities engaging and owning 10% of that target and playing an active role in managing and monitoring biodiversity.
We have a number of workstreams that support our capacity building:
Community Energy Pathways: a mentoring programme supported by local authorities or businesses to locate and mentor community energy groups in a particular area
Climate Literacy Training: Our accredited Climate Literacy training is available for individuals, local authorities or businesses to acquire an in depth knowledge of Net Zero and the Climate Crisis. Learn how to engage effectively on this topic, with others with the same concerns and questions as you. Leave with clear actionable ideas and plans for yourself, your place of work and or your community.
CommuniPower: Working with clusters of villages to embed local area energy planning in regional strategies and actions to transition to Net Zero
Webinars & free training: We provide free to attend webinars for all community leaders and groups who want to learn more about community energy and create energy projects and post the recordings and presentations on our youtube channel.
Find out more at www.communityenergysouth.org. Sign up to our newsletter for updates and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.