Funded Energy Redress Projects

The project aims to develop a 16MW (4-5 turbine) wind farm on Forestry and Land Scotland ground adjacent to one of their existing wind projects and their community outdoor adventure venue. This will significantly upscale the level of income available to their community for investment across a range of areas of need. 

To date, they have secured a grid connection (October 2031) for the project and, with the help of additional funding, have completed 35% of the work required towards a planning application. The project will support staff time (and ancillary costs) required to take forward the wind farm to meet key deadlines/milestones, and engage their community fully.

The project will develop a 14MWp solar farm on the closed Chelson Meadow landfill site. Saving approximately 2,600 tonnes of carbon per annum, the solar farm will be owned and managed by Chelson Meadow Community Solar – a joint venture between Plymouth City Council and PEC Renewables. 

The project will provide up to 60% of the Council’s electricity needs by using an innovative virtual power purchase agreement; the UK's first between a local authority and a community-owned solar farm. This guarantees long-term revenue for the project and energy price security for the Council, as well as crucially unlocking the investment required to scale renewable energy in the city. 

They aim to prove the concept of the  virtual power purchase agreement model, and by doing so provide a blueprint for replication nationwide, accelerating progress towards the 8GW Local Power Plan target. Learning and information from the project will be shared and disseminated to other local authorities and community energy groups to enable replication of the process. 

Funding will enable the project to reach financial close, enter into an EPC contract to commence construction, and site energisation in summer 2026.

The project will deliver energy advice and support to elderly residents and those most in need. Including individuals with long-term conditions, sensory impairments, physical health challenges, and low-income backgrounds.

Alongside energy saving advice the project will provide practical assistance in making small but effective home energy efficiency changes, helping to reduce energy consumption and lower costs. This includes installing simple adjustments such as draught-proofing, energy-efficient lighting, and optimising heating controls to maximise warmth while minimising waste.

In addition, they will support residents with tailored advice to help them make informed decisions when searching for and switching to the most cost-effective energy tariffs, ensuring they are not overpaying for their energy.

The project will also offer hands-on support in dealing with energy providers, assisting with billing queries, negotiating manageable payment plans, dealing with energy arrears and helping individuals understand their energy usage. 

By empowering people with the knowledge and confidence to manage their energy costs effectively, they aim to reduce financial anxiety and enhance their ability to maintain a warm, secure, and independent home environment.

In partnership with Citizens Advice South West Staffordshire, Citizens Advice South East Staffordshire, and Beat the Cold, the project will provide energy advice and support to vulnerable consumers, across a large network of community venues.

The project will host trained Energy Advisors within foodbanks, libraries, neighbourhood networks, family hubs, and older communities, engaging those who are most vulnerable, and those who don't access the support they need.

Trained Energy Advisers will:

• Provide immediate crisis support
• Deliver advice on energy efficiency
• Support financial capability and resilience
• Raise awareness of available support
• Provide onward referrals to Beat the Cold for energy efficiency advice and capital measures

Through this established partnership and support from local organisations they will increase energy advice provision to meet demand from vulnerable energy consumers, offering a mixture of face-to-face and telephone advice, home visits, and capital measures.

The project aims to deliver net zero in the Isles of Scilly’s electricity supply with environmental, social and economic benefit to the islands’ community. 

Scilly has the highest energy bills of any area in the UK, standing at £1,227 (UK average £757) at the start of 2022. Due to reliance on electricity as the sole source of domestic energy. Depending on measurement methodology, fuel poverty rates on Scilly may be as high as 21% - significantly higher than the national average, evidencing a need to address electricity costs in this location. 

Scilly faces several structural challenges: high capital costs due to the off-shore location, lack of economies of scale due to the small population size, scarcity of land, and an increasing proportion of the population being economically inactive (29%) and elderly (22%). 

This project will progress 3 sites from feasibility study to investment ready state (1 solar, 2 solar and battery). Construction of these sites would allow 400 additional households to join our Energy Local club, delivering around a 21% reduction in energy bills for those households. 

To deliver targeted support for vulnerable households, they will explore the viability of three options: enabling their participation in our Energy Local club, involving them in the decision making around next steps in our energy roadmap, and the identification of potential surpluses and whether they could effectively contribute financially to local support structures.

Blocks of flats pose unique legal, technical, and social challenges for retrofit, making it particularly difficult for low income and vulnerable households in these properties to access the benefits of warmer, healthier homes. Building on their core strengths in community engagement and co-design, this project will address key gaps in the market through a community retrofit service for these homes. 

This project builds on two previously funded projects, through which they have piloted and developed a property survey and retrofit co-design service for blocks of flats. In a previous project, they tested the minimum viable service in one estate of five blocks. The original scale of this project was revised to facilitate essential development of a digital platform for data collection and actionable advice by project partner Novoville; it has generated significant learnings and tools for delivering this offering at scale. 

This project will systematise and deliver the full service for a cohort of ten blocks of flats, including: 

• Block recruitment and marketing
• Co-developing collaborative visions for retrofit and mentoring community champions
• Whole-block survey methodology: collecting behavioural and technical data
• Energy modelling and reporting: optioneering retrofit measures, generating actionable energy efficiency plans for residents, and whole block retrofit plans

This will validate service development work undertaken to date across different typologies, standardise the approach to create efficiencies, and subsequently offer the full service at scale across varied tenure-types.

‘Powerless People’ was a short film produced in 2021, highlighting the plight of households in Northumberland currently living with no connection to the electricity grid – over 350 of them. The majority of these households rely on diesel generators to meet their basic electricity needs.

Through ‘Powering People,’ they aim to deliver a wraparound support service to off-grid households in Northumberland, increasing access to sustainable energy solutions and reducing reliance on diesel generators. This project will improve the quality of life for these households while demonstrating a scalable model for nationwide implementation in off-electricity grid areas. 

The project will:

• Deliver direct benefits to future energy consumers currently not connected to a utility company including household energy audits, facilitating access to financial support and grid connection opportunities
• Reduce carbon emissions from current diesel powered electricity generation
• Produce carbon reduction assessments for clusters of off-grid properties as the basis for developing community-based energy solutions, creating long-term, sustainable energy access for these isolated communities
• Use their evidence of issues and solutions to advocate for all off-electricity grid households along with enabling knowledge exchange and raising awareness of solution options

This project will deliver energy saving advice and support to vulnerable residents, particularly those who are neurodivergent, those with mental health conditions, and those who struggle to use current services. Expertise and learning will be shared across their national organisation. 

They will provide face-to-face advice at home and in the community, where practical and appropriate advice will also be delivered online. Advice will focus on enabling people to make the changes and adaptations required to reduce their energy use and access more affordable options in the future, alongside crisis support. 

The project will identify common gaps in knowledge among this cohort and create easy to read, bespoke resources which are more easily understood by the people they serve. These will be made available on their website and to other partnership organisations. 

In addition, they will train two further people to become energy advisors gaining the City and Guilds Level 3 qualification. This will provide the local community with an ongoing legacy when funding finishes.

The project aims to support 2,000 households across rural Cambridgeshire to reduce energy costs, improve home comfort, and contribute to environmental sustainability by lowering carbon emissions. Their focus will be to effectively reach vulnerable households who require energy advice in the home and within local community venues. Alongside offering telephone and video appointments. 

By collaborating with other charities, agencies and organisations to reach the most vulnerable households, the project aims to address critical social, economic, and environmental challenges in the region; improving the lives and resilience of beneficiaries. 

They will deliver comprehensive, tailored energy advice, and provide short term relief to those facing self-disconnection because of lack of funds. As well as improving client confidence in energy efficiency improvements and government schemes to provide longer term sustainable, affordable solutions. Empowering residents to successfully manage their own energy usage in the future and manage unforeseen issues.