About Us

Who we are

We are the voice for community energy

Community Energy England was founded in 2014 by practitioners within the community energy sector to act as the voice of the sector and help put people at the heart of energy transformation. Thanks to the support of our members, we have cemented this position and steadily increased our expertise, activities, impact and membership, whilst remaining the only organisation dedicated to representing and supporting the community energy sector in England. We now represent over 300 community energy and associated organisations involved in the delivery of community-led projects and services.

We are governed by a Board of Directors and managed by Emma Bridge, the Chief Executive, and her team.

Click here to read more about our governance and download our annual reports, which tell you about our activity and achievements over the last few years.

Membership is the heart of Community Energy England - find out more about membership and apply to join.

What we do

We work to create the conditions within which community energy is able to thrive and scale. We aim to achieve this through three key workstreams:

Enabling community energy organisations across England to grow in scale and impact

We do this in a number of ways, including:

  • Ensuring that we have robust data e.g. through the annual state of the sector research to focus our support in the most effective way, and to help to inform the support that others provide
  • Helping organisations to share learning and solve issues through our regional events, working groups, and online discussion forums
  • Providing and sharing resources and tools, such as through our how-to webpages (N.B. we will be launching a new website in 2025)
  • As part of a UK consortium, developing an Energy Learning Network, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, to help build the capacity of the sector across the UK

Advocating for a policy and regulatory environment that supports the growth of community energy

As the only national organisation dedicated to representing and supporting the community energy sector in England, we work with our members to ensure that we advocate for support that will unlock the most significant barriers to sector growth and will provide meaningful local impact. Our activity includes:

  • Regular meetings with civil servants, politicians, and think tanks to raise the profile of community energy and help to develop policy, regulatory and fiscal support
  • Ensuring that community energy practitioners are represented on key advisory groups
  • Adding to our existing evidence base and narrative to clearly demonstrate the positive impacts of community energy
  • In the run up to the General Election, CEE helped to develop the thinking behind the Local Power Plan (LPP) and GB Energy and our priority is now to ensure that the LPP is designed and developed in way that will ensure the growth and increased impact of community energy

Working at a national and regional level to increase demand for collaborating with and investing in community energy

We work with energy, climate, community, social enterprise, and finance networks that span the community, public and private sectors. Through these networks we create connections, build relationships, and provide resources to help potential collaborators and investors.

Our work on the UK Energy Learning Network will enable us to increase our work on this over the next couple of years and target our resources to where they will have the most impact for the sector. 

In 2025 we will be launching a new website to clearly demonstrate what community energy is, the impact it is making and the various pathways available to community energy. The new website will ensure that it is as easy as possible for anyone interested in community energy to find information that is relevant for them.

How we work

We ensure that all of our work is informed by and aligned with the following values:

  • We value diverse perspectives and believe that ideas and solutions are best achieved through cooperation among community members, stakeholders, and experts.
  • Our work is informed by the insight and experience of our members and we aim to use our knowledge in the most efficient way.
  • We are collaborative, communicative and approachable, working with other associations and networks across the UK and energy, climate and social enterprise sectors.
  • We remain open to new opportunities, to being bold, and to leading the way, ensuring that we set our direction to best enable the growth of community energy.

What we don't do

We do not get directly involved in developing community energy projects and our team cannot give technical advice for setting up a community energy project - if you are looking for advice or guidance, please visit the How To section of our website or look for consultants, installers, O&M providers and project developers on our member map. Our members have access to an online discussion forum to share issues, ideas, and solve problems.

We are also happy to help connect our members with people and organisations who can give project development advice and other assistance with running a community energy organisation. Please consider joining us to benefit from our extensive network.

How we are funded

Community Energy England is a not-for-profit organisation funded by charitable grants, membership fees and other project and event sponsorship. We are grateful to all organisations who contribute financially to our work to support the sector and help it grow.