Community power on the up

Marie Reynolds

12 July 2013

Last week the Government announced plans to allow communities to earn cash-back for generating power from larger renewable energy projects. This went by largely unnoticed by the press; picked up by just a handful of trade websites.

But community power is not to be sniffed at. The other day I came across an article in the Times (£) reporting that a big rise last year in the number of farmers and small firms producing their own power is "turning the UK into a nation of mini power stations".

More than 2,000 independently owned commercial-scale power stations are already operating. Now there will be more.

Community energy projects generating up to 10MW/hr now stand to benefit from the Feed-in Tariff scheme - guaranteed cash back from energy companies for generating electricity from renewable energy projects. This is fairly big stuff; we're talking solar farms and small groups of wind turbines.

Seems like a good idea to me. As well as earning farmers, small businesses and entire communities a tidy profit to ease the pain of rising fuel bills, these projects open up the UK's energy system by taking power off the multi-million pound profit-hauling 'Big Six' power companies and sharing it out among more people.

Last summer I got the chance to see community power in action when I went to visit Westmill Wind and Solar Farm Co-operatives on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border, for our Clean British Energy campaign.

Here I am helping our photographer by holding up the light reflecting thing to stop it blowing over in the wind.

In one field more than 20,000 solar panels producing 5 MW stood in rows surrounded by endless colourful wild flowers. It was rather an impressive sight. In the next field, five majestic wind turbines turned quietly like Olympic swimmers against the cloudy sky. They produce enough electricity to power 2,500 homes.

Both schemes are co-operatives - with local shareholders benefiting from the financial return on the electricity being generated. I met one of them, local resident Colin Bell, who was hugely enthusiastic about the wind turbines, pointing out that they were much quieter than the nearby main road.

Adam Twine, the farmer, had swapped cattle farming for renewable power - something he is deeply passionate about. He told me it was making him a lot more money now too.

 
Adam Twine, farmer, Westmill Solar Farm.

But he also said that renewable energy on a community scale needs to be better incentivised, to encourage more farmers to invest in co-operatives.

The Government's plans seem to be a good step forward. But Friends of the Earth says Ministers should increase the scale of the Feed-in Tariff yet further. This would allow even more businesses, cooperatives and even hospitals to take part. 

Download our free guide to the Feed-in Tariffs and the renewable heat incentive.

Marie Reynolds, Communications and Media Team