1 October 2024
Community Energy Fund – Midlands
The Community Energy Fund (CEF) is a £10 million grant scheme for urban and rural communities to develop community energy projects, including local renewable and low carbon energy projects (such as wind farms, hydro power and rural heat networks, community electric vehicle projects (such as electric vehicle charging points and electric car clubs) and energy efficiency retrofit and advice projects (where there is local need and a gap in existing services and where there is a business model for a sustainable service).
The Fund aims to empower local people to take control of their energy future by:
- Increasing the number of community-owned low-carbon energy assets
- Supporting communities to reduce energy cost and demand
- Generating local income through community-owned energy assets
- Reinvesting income locally and kickstarting private investment
- Supporting local jobs, growth and volunteering opportunities
- Enabling places to benefit from clean, renewable, local energy
The fund will achieve its aims by supporting the earlier-development stages of community-scale projects.
The fund is for the development of projects from concept to investment-ready scheme. It does not provide capital funding for the installation of projects themselves.
The guidance notes and application forms as well as the supplementary documents can be found on the Midlands Net Zero Hub website.
The next deadline for applications is 8 November 2024.