A Community Energy Strategy for the UK

The consultation by DECC on a proposed Community Energy Strategy for the UK has now closed. This has stimulated some interesting discussion. There is now work being done to set up a practitioner-led body ‘Community Energy England’ to match similar bodies in Scotland and Wales.   A short introduction to that is here: CEE – short intro with a contact email. You will see from this that Chris from CEA is involved in this.

Two very useful documents have emerged from the consultation.  There is a joint paper from a range of bodies coordinated by the UK Community Energy Coalition: DECC Community Energy Strategy joint position paper

There is also a very interesting response from former MP Alan Simpson, who now works as a specialist on these issues – note the key point in the title about ‘ownership’ – this may be a key area for debate in the coming months : Community-owned energy generation Alan Simpson

Expect more on communtiy energy in coming weeks as new proejcts emerge: just this morning came news of a 330Kw communityowned wind turbine developed by the Cambridgeshire village of Gamlingay: http://www.gamlingay-community-turbine.co.uk

Community Energy Fortnight is also less than a month away.  It’s the first ever set of events on this theme. It runs 24 August – 8 September.  Some events are now confirmed with more still being organised. The website is now live www.ukcec.org  (and twitter @UKCEC).