Rural Community Energy Fund
The Rural Community Energy Fund (the Fund) is a £10 million programme that supports rural communities in England to develop renewable energy projects which provide economic and social benefits to the community.
More than 150 communities have already used the Fund, through its first £15m round.
Some of the projects generate income from the local communities from selling energy back into the grid. For example, a project in Frome which included Frome Town Football Club installed over 200 kW of solar capacity – enough to power 2,000 light bulbs and save 333 tons of CO2 – generated almost £70,000 for the local community by selling extra solar electricity back to the grid. See the Funded projects section at the end of this briefing paper for examples.
It is jointly funded by Defra and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The deadline for applications is 9th September 2019.
Our paper on the Rural Energy Fund explores the following:
- How the Fund works
- Who can apply?
- Scale of the projects
- Community benefit and support
- How to apply
- Examples of funded projects
