New guide aims to help councils unlock community solar

Community energy is set to play a significant role in the UK's clean energy plans, enabling local communities to meet their own power demand sustainably and generate additional income. However, numerous barriers have prevented community energy projects from scaling.

A new toolkit, written by former Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Planning at Cotswold District Council Dr Rachel Coxcoon and produced by Community Energy Pathways with UK100 and Community Energy England, aims to encourage greater community-council partnerships to accelerate these projects.

By 2030, the UK Government has targeted 8 gigawatts (GW) of community- and locally-owned capacity, with the Scottish and Welsh Governments having also targeted 2GW and 1.5GW, respectively.

## The State of Community Energy

According to Community Energy England's most recent State of the Sector report, there are 614 community energy organisations across the UK. Together, they have built 411 megawatts (MW) of clean energy capacity, capable of generating 575 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually, or enough to power around 213,000 households.

| Capacity Type | Capacity (MW) | | --- | --- | | Wind | 132 | | Solar | 266 | | Hydropower | 13 |

These projects have supported almost 1,000 employees and more than 5,000 volunteers. Community Energy England estimates that a further 99MW of capacity is in the pipeline, but has been stalled due to barriers like high grid connection costs, long grid connection waiting times and a lack of funding.

Stalled capacity has also increased significantly to 379MW in 2024, up from 270MW the year before. These challenges mean that community renewables are far less common in the UK than in many other European markets, including Germany and the Netherlands.

## The Guidance

The new, free support aims to help both community energy organisations and local councils talk to and understand each other, with the goal of scaling community energy. It was produced following interviews and consultation sessions online and at conferences across Essex, Berkshire and Bedfordshire, using the input of over 200 council and community energy staff.

A key finding was that projects often stall because they aren’t owned by a specific council department, instead relying on the championship of one officer or councillor. That means that staff changes can quickly leave projects stranded, meaning embedding the projects formally within councils is critical to their ongoing success.

Community Energy Pathways executive chair Ollie Pendered said: "With Great British Energy set to release details of its Partnerships Fund specifically aimed at supporting local authorities to partner with community energy organisations, this resource is right on time."

The guide offers important decision-making templates that councils can edit and use directly, including a cabinet decision paper, a community solar strategy and a full council motion. It also includes key resources to tackle common barriers such as procurement and legal blockers, with real case studies from councils that have tackled these issues.

There is also an explainer document designed for community energy groups to break down who holds which powers in councils, how decisions get made and what local government reorganisation means for groups trying to build a partnership.

UK100 chief executive Christopher Hammond added: "There is real appetite in councils of every political colour to get community-owned solar onto their roofs and their land. What gets in the way is almost never the politics. It is the practical questions: who owns this internally, which procurement route is lawful, whether they can sign a long lease. Those questions have answers, and they are in this guide.