Tuesday 10 March - Birmingham Town Hall
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), in association with the Welsh Assembly Government, Forestry Commission, Community Energy England and Regen SW.
Community and Local Heat in England and Wales
A free event for the public sector and community groups in England and Wales on developing small scale local community heat projects using heat pumps, biomass and community heat networks.
The conference reported on progress on the heat actions in the UK’s first Community Energy Strategy including: The Forestry Commission’s new community biomass guidance – which includes wood as a fuel, woodfuel supply chains and funding opportunities. An update was provided on next steps on the development of community heat toolkit and presentations on notable case studies and raising finance.
Presentations by: Baroness Verma (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Energy and Climate Change) ; Ian Manders (Danish Trade Council) on Danish community heat networks; Simon Woodward, the chair of UKDEA on the structure and components of heat projects; Matthew Woodcock from The Forestry Commission on community biomass and community heat case studies from England and Wales.
The event was chaired by Community Energy England’s CEO, Emma Bridge.
The Community Heat Conference offered:
- Sessions on finding finance and break-out working groups on the community toolkit
- Networking for those interested in developing community heat projects
- Information on process, technical issues, finance and technologies
- Information on the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Rural and Urban Community Energy Funds (England) and ‘Ynni Fro’ Welsh Government support programme for community energy
- Advice on assessing local woodfuel supply chains.