Community Power Scotland

from remote island grids to urban solar co-operatives

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Community Power Scotland

We recognise that people’s ownership of renewable energy is vital to win public support for the transition to renewables and ensure communities can benefit.

Under a joint Community Energy campaign we have teamed up with organisations from across Europe. Our aim is to:

  • Speed up the development of renewable projects by supporting a favourable legislative environment
  • Inform and educate policymakers, empowering them to put forward enabling frameworks
  • Build a broad, public coalition in support of community renewable energy projects
  • Inform and engage the public through workshops, street stalls, stunts and more.

To find out about our Community Power partners visit: www.communitypower.eu

Our report, Community Power Scotland: From Remote Island Grids to Urban Solar Co-operatives, shows the wonderful diversity of community energy projects across Scotland.

What is Community Energy?

The term community energy is used in a variety of different contexts including energy efficiency projects, grid management, collective power purchasing and energy generation. In addition, we might be talking about a geographic, local community or a community of interest.

As such we think it’s more useful to define community energy through common characteristics. These include:

  • Ordinary people or citizens are involved in running the project through community groups such as cooperatives or development trusts
  • There is a co-operative, democratic or specifically non-corporate structure
  • There are tangible local benefits to people living or working close to projects
  • The profits go back to the community or are re-invested in other community energy schemes.
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Latest News

New Report: Shared Ownership in Scotland

Our new report documents 12 examples of partnerships between community groups and commercial organisations in generating renewable energy. This model of shared ownership enables those communities who might not have the resources or finance to … Read More »

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Delivering decentralised community energy

The world is in the grips of a climate crisis driven by greenhouse gas emissions, of which the largest single source is the energy sector. Any successful global effort to mitigate climate change will require … Read More »

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Small Wind Co-op has big future

With work now getting underway on building two community-owned wind turbines at Wemyss Bay, Inverclyde, we look at how the Small Wind Co-op enables its members to share in the wider energy systems by linking … Read More »

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CommunityPower.scot is a Friends of the Earth Scotland website published on behalf of the Scottish Community Energy Coalition and the Community Power project.

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