Community Energy Fund (CEF)

In a statement released on the 21st March 2025, funding for a new round of the Great British Energy Community Fund, previously known as the Community Energy Fund (CEF), was announced. £5m of funding nationally will be made available to town and parish councils, community organisations, sports teams, charities and faith groups – helping to generate energy closer to where it is used and which local people benefit from. This will build on funding to back projects including a new hydro-power technology in the River Dane to generate renewable energy for homes and businesses in Congleton, Cheshire.

Details relating to the next round of Great British Energy Community Fund will be published in due course. You can see some information from our previous CEF fund below.

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The Community Energy Fund (CEF) is a national grant programme designed to support a range of community groups and eligible third and public sector organisations in England to develop projects from feasibility to commercialisation. 

In October 2024 the North West Net Zero Hub has launched Round 4 of the Community Energy Fund.

Download an introduction to the CEF which explains the types of projects and organisations that were eligible: CEF-NW-Summary. For a video talking through the summary: CEF-NW-IntroVideo

Funding Summary

The Community Energy Fund (CEF) is a 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). CEF grants are not available for capital works, equipment or service delivery, and cannot be used to cover costs incurred prior to the grant offer.

The grant offer support in two stages:

• The Stage 1 grant funding provides up to a maximum of £40,000 maximum to cover the professional costs of undertaking a feasibility study and producing a report to establish the technical and financial viability of a project.
• The Stage 2 grant funding provides up to £100,000 maximum to cover the cost of developing a project that has been able to demonstrate technical and financial viability. This includes the legal costs of securing a site, an environmental impact assessment, planning and permitting applications, and development of a business plan.

Pre-application Discussion

In order to support organisations to make strong applications for the fund, we partnered with the Centre for Sustainable Energy – an energy advice and climate change charity with decades of experience supporting the community energy sector across the UK. This enabled the hub to offer pre-application phone calls to run through potential project ideas, and the opportunity to discuss whether the Community Energy Fund was a good fit for a project. 

If you want to know more about community energy you can register for support from our Community Net Zero Pathways programme.