Rural Community Energy Fund
The North West Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) Programme ran from to Autumn 2019 to March 2022.
Lancashire County Council managed £1.5 Million of funding for rural community groups to develop projects from feasibility to commercialisation. 22 projects were supported in total.
Nineteen stage 1 projects were supported with up to £40,000 to understand the viability of their proposal. Schemes investigated options for solar panels, heat from the ground and rivers, energy saving, hydro power and more.
11 projects were provided with Stage 2 funding of which seven projects were funded through both stages. Stage 2 funding enabled groups to tackle barriers to delivery of a viable scheme, including submitting planning applications, drawing up legal agreements and launching fund raises.
The programme supported projects in every part of the North West.
With RCEF support, the Congolton Hydro project at Havanah Weir was constructed and is now operational. We are confident that several other schemes will go onto deliver for their communities.
The Net Zero Hubs in collaboration with Community Energy England has published Top Ten Guide for Getting Started for groups embarking on new projects.
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Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) Resource Bank
The resource bank is hosted by Community Energy England and can be found here.
The Rural Energy Community Fund was a national scheme established by the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy in recognition of the importance of community energy in England. RCEF was delivered by five regional Net Zero Hubs, and has iniated over 200+ new community energy projects since its inception in 2019.
Community Energy England has worked in partnership with the Net Zero Hubs to collate a number of key resources and legacies on the back of this £10 million programme, including
- A national map of the programme – Collated in partnership with the Net Zero Hubs, CEE’s 2022 national map contains all projects iniated under the RCEF programme. It is the most comprehensive database for local authorities, research institutes, and other partners who may be interested on projects and groups funded through the programme as well as wider community energy projects operating across the country. A downloadable guide on using the map is avaliable here
- National case study catalogue – Community Energy South has also worked in partnership with the Hubs and Community Energy England to collate a shorter catalogue of sampled case studies. These are avaliable to download by Hub region,below:
North West Region
Bendrigg / Brampton 2 Zero 1 / Brampton 2 Zero / Bretherton / Bretton Hall / Buttermere / Chipping / Congleton Park / Dane Valley / Duddon / Irwell Hydro / Keswick / Kirkby / Lakeside / Lymm / Mellor / Nantwich Mill Community Energy / Northern Roots / Partington / Prospects Community / Rochdale / Skelmersdale / Southport Ecocentre