{"id":4618,"date":"2014-09-26T14:39:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T13:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=4618"},"modified":"2014-09-26T14:39:50","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T13:39:50","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-community-energy-comes-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=4618","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week- Community energy comes of age?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wind<\/a>This week community energy has been in the news.\u00a0 My attention was drawn to the opening of a small hydro scheme in the north of England<\/a>.\u00a0 In of itself its of interest since it uses an existing dam which has been converted to allow electricity production (43kWp).\u00a0 But as it happens this week the UK government has been emphasising its support for community energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By community energy we mean energy production in the hands of predominantly (but not exclusively) the local community.\u00a0 This is very common in Denmark and Germany where most solar and wind schemes are owned by local or regional groups.\u00a0 In the UK and the US wind and solar schemes (along with fracking) are carried out by large companies coming in.\u00a0 There is little community involvement or benefit so its hardly surprising that that there is a lot of resistance.\u00a0 There are a growing number of exceptions.\u00a0 In Fintry, Scotland the community accepted a wind farm but only if they owned one turbine.\u00a0 The income from this is spent on energy efficiency and micro-generation in a community off the natural gas grid.\u00a0 In Gigha after a community buy out the community put up three large turbines (the money is used in the same way as Fintry).\u00a0 Bay wind bought out a small wind farm in Cumbria and through a company they set up “energy4all”<\/a> help others to do the same.\u00a0 The transition movement has also been involved in solar schemes in urban areas in such places as Lewes and Cheltenham.\u00a0 Nevertheless community energy currently makes up a tiny minority of energy production.<\/p>\n

Its still far too complex to set these community energy schemes up.\u00a0 You can see the evidence for this in the above hydro scheme.\u00a0 The community had been thinking about since 2008.\u00a0 Funnily enough I have heard money is not the issue.\u00a0 After the financial crash with bank interest rates being so low renewable energy has offered a far better rate of return.\u00a0 The complexities are legal and grid related as well as to do with changes in renewable policy.\u00a0 DECC want to see 3GWp of community energy projects over the next 6 years partly so that there is more competition for the big six energy suppliers and help to bring down energy costs.\u00a0 Whether this will be possible without a lot of help and\u00a0simplification of the rules remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week community energy has been in the news.\u00a0 My attention was drawn to the opening of a small hydro scheme in the north of England.\u00a0 In of itself its of interest since it uses an existing dam which has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,30,17,4,16,1],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-4618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-costs","category-fracking","category-one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week","category-renewables","category-transition","category-uncategorized","tag-community-energy"],"yoast_head":"\nOne thing we have learnt this week- Community energy comes of age? - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week community energy has been in the news. 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