The Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) is a grant that has been made available by the Government.
Its aim is to support rural communities in England to develop renewable energy projects, which provide economic and social benefits to the community.
In total £10million of grant is available across England. In the North West, a total of £1 million is available to support projects.
We are proposing running a further meeting with Kate Gilmartin from the North West Energy Hub around Hydro schemes. But please do get in touch if you have any renewable energy potential projects.
Please respond to r Kate.Gilmartin@lancashire.gov.uk
RURAL COMMUNITY ENERGY FUND – NORTH WEST OF
ENGLAND
How is it paid for?
The RCEF grant will support the upfront costs involved in getting a project to a position where it is ready to start on site. However, it does not pay for the capital costs of the technology, so for example, would not pay for solar panels or wind turbines. So how is this paid for? The community group will need to raise that money themselves. This could be through borrowing money against future income from selling electricity, or from an issue of community shares, where community members and others can invest in and receive returns from the project. These are tried and tested models, which have been utilised many times by community energy groups. There are many examples on websites such as Community Energy England, and the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
If we are interested, what should we do now?
If you are interested, it is worth reading the full guidance found at https://www.localenergynw.org/page/rcef. It will also be worth getting in touch with your RCEF Project Officer, details below.
You can talk to them about all aspects of your project, including how best to get a consultant on board to support you. Is it also worth visiting some of the websites mentioned above which have a wealth of information on community energy projects.
Welookforwardtohearingfromyou! Contact: kate.gilmartin@lancashire.gov.ukwww.localenergynw.org/page