Funding for Locally Owned Renewable Energy Projects in Scotland
Enablement grants are available for communities, public sector organisations and rural businesses to make long-term environmental changes and take part in the post-COVID green recovery in Scotland.
Local Energy Scotland is offering grants of up to £25,000 to advance local energy projects across the nation. The fund aims to enable early-stage project activities, without which a renewable energy installation could not proceed, and support the development of locally owned or shared ownership renewable energy systems. This is part of the Scottish Government’s wider Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) to support local communities with energy project development, mobilisation, and delivery.
There are two tiers of funding available:
- Enablement grants of up to £25,000.
- Smaller grants of up to £5,000 for eligible single projects or elements of a larger project.
Eligible projects will address the following:
- Development of locally owned renewable and local energy system projects.
- Exploration of shared ownership opportunities.
- Maximising the impact from community benefit funds.
Eligible organisations include but are not limited to:
- Constituted, not-for-profit community groups.
- Societies for the benefit of the community.
- Co-operatives.
- Rural Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Funding can be used to cover costs related to non-capital aspects of a project, including feasibility studies, organisational set-up, community consultations, community capacity building and consultation, investigating shared ownership project opportunities, and other preparatory costs. Feasibility work that demonstrates project viability may lead to future CARES funding opportunities.
Applications can be submitted at any time.
(This report was the subject of a GRANTfinder Newsflash.)
