Developing Your Idea

Community owned renewable energy projects give communities the opportunity to own their own energy supply while helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, enhance community resilience and generate income which can be used locally to help fund other community-based projects.

There are a number of key things to consider if you are planning on developing a renewable energy project in your community.

What Do You Want To Achieve?

It’s important to have a clear idea of why you are doing this? Is your primary goal to generate income for the community or are you interested in increasing the amount of renewable energy generated locally? Perhaps, your key goal is to reduce your community’s carbon footprint? Establishing a working group will you help you to agree your project goals as these will have an impact on your business plan, how you finance the project and who you collaborate with.

Is Your Community On-Board?

When starting out, it’s advisable to consult as many people and organisations as possible in your local area. Early community engagement is crucial because it will ensure that your project’s vision is understood, shared and supported in the community. It also allows you to address the community’s issues at the start so you do not encounter resistance at a later stage.

More Information on Engaging With Your Community

Develop a Project Plan

A project plan helps you to outline objectives and aims and assign timescales and milestones. This is important for monitoring and managing your project allowing you to review progress and decide whether the project continues to be viable. Local Energy Scotland’s Project Plan template is a useful tool which includes some of the key activities associated with developing a renewable energy project and can be adapted for your specific needs.

Project Plan Template By Local Energy Scotland

How Will You Pay For Your Project?

This will vary depending on the stage of your project. In the early, development stage of a project there are still a great deal of unknowns which means that project risk is at its highest and attracting investment is difficult. For this reason, community groups will tend to fund early stage activities such as community consultations, local energy planning reports and feasibility studies with grants. When a project moves into the construction stage, the risk reduces and options such as debt and equity finance come into play - you will need a good business plan to help you attract investment. Once a project is commissioned, there may be financial incentives, often in the form of government subsidies, which can provide a guaranteed revenue stream over a set period.

To learn more about some of the key funding sources discussed here, go to our Financing Community Energy page.

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