Lead Authority: South Hams District Council

Proposal theme: Environmental sustainability: Local Renewable Energy Provision.

Main elements: This proposal is about the Government making policy changes and funds available to enable individual householders, communities and businesses to be more self sufficient in generating their own sources of sustainable energy, through decentralised production of renewable energy and local distribution networks.

The UK currently has a very centralised mode of delivery of electricity and heating. The vast majority of electricity is generated in large fossil fuel power stations and transmitted through high voltage transmission pylons close to the location of demand so that supply and demand are spatially separate.  This is inefficient and results in most of the energy being lost in the cables that move the electricity around the transformers.

Local production and distribution of energy is a fundamentally different approach. Large power stations are usually sited well away from the point of delivery and are all but invisible to local communities.  However when locally produced renewable energy is generated and supplied at or near the point of demand, it is highly visible to the local population. This visibility creates a connection between production and consumption at a local community level, and this has the potential to drive down emissions and energy bills radically. In other words, when people can see where their energy is coming from and have ‘ownership’ of it, they are more likely to pursue significant reductions in energy demand, especially where energy is devolved down to householder or community level and energy consumers become their own producers.

Maximum environmental benefits can be gained from localised sustainable production of energy where the power sources are of the right size and scale to meet local needs and transmission and distribution losses are minimised.  At individual householder level a range of micro renewables are available such as solar thermal, PV, geothermal, biomass and small scale wind. At neighbourhood or town level CHP offers community heating and cooling and the potential for utilising power and heating networks in new developments is significant.  This needs to be considered in Local Authority energy plans. Technologies suited to integration into the planning of new developments include biomass, wind, hydro, solar and geothermal.

Community owned ESCOs (Energy Service Companies)1 are one of the most useful mechanisms for delivering one-off and long-term projects at small and community scales. An ESCO is a community owned and managed co-operative initiating local renewable installations, funded by the community (town and hinterland) buy-in through shares in the co-operative.  They enable profits to be recycled to install more energy generation capacity or energy efficiency measures and are particularly suited to delivering heat and power networks and supplying cheaper energy too, as energy is supplied direct to the customer avoiding distribution and other costs.

Issues addressed:  The domestic sector accounts for 27% of UK’s CO2 emissions (DTI, 2002)2 and is critical to tackling climate change. It is essential to reduce emissions from both new and existing homes. This proposal will tackle carbon emissions from the domestic sector as well as fuel poverty, community well-being and promote the renewable energy industry.  This proposal will provide the means for local community groups and individuals to produce and distribute their own energy through renewable sources.  The result of this will be a lowering in the energy used, due to a greater awareness of its production; lower energy bills, partly due to lower energy used but also due to decentralisation of the production system resulting in a more efficient system; greater community well being due to individuals and groups being responsible for the production and distribution of local energy; and a boost for the growing renewables industry, creating employment opportunities for skilled workers in local areas. 

The Devon Association for Renewable Energy (DARE) believes that the true potential of this proposal lies in the potential for Local Authorities to take the lead in bringing current ad-hoc renewable energy projects together.  A representative has stated : “As well as ourselves, Transition Towns and all the Climate Action Groups, along with Energy Action Devon (EST funded), RE4D, LARC Programmes, Regensw etc are all working at community level and although there is communication between them, there is no actual co-ordination and no association with the LA.  Moreover none of these organisations have the resources to undertake the co-ordination, and they all need to protect their own activities and very survival.”

By implementing this proposal, renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across England can be brought together at a local level to promote local community level production, producing a more effective and efficient system.

Who is affected:  This proposal can affect all homeowners or communities within England.  It will enable individuals or community groups to take ownership of energy production, and distribute the energy on the national grid, in competition with larger companies. 

Actions from Government: To make this proposal financially viable feed in tariffs need to be introduced similar to the German system (introduced in 1999).  These enable anyone generating electricity from solar PV, wind or hydro to get a guaranteed payment above the current market value for electricity, spreading the cost by generating ‘community’ companies among all users.  Although powers enabling the UK Government to introduce feed in tariffs for projects below 5NW were included in the recent Energy Bill, the precise details of the scheme are yet to be decided and will need secondary legislation to enact.  National funding needs to be made available, perhaps through a grant system, for setting up ESCOs either community owned and managed or in partnership with Local Authorities who could provide some financial security.  To encourage communities and individuals to produce and distribute energy the Government needs to recognise and support local heat distribution networks and local renewable production, located near to the source of generation.

Benefits:
• Create more sustainable communities though security of energy supply
• Meet the challenge of Peak oil and dwindling fossil fuel supplies
• Help to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change
• Create a low carbon economy and future through local production of Renewable Energy
• Promote community ownership and buy-in to a sustainable future
• Minimise the amount of energy lost via distribution leading to greater energy efficiency and lower emissions