Funding for renewables

The Community Sustainable Energy Programme will provide £8 million to community-based organisations for the installation of microgeneration technologies, such as solar panels or wind turbines and energy efficiency measures including loft and cavity wall insulation. It will also provide £1 million for project development grants that will help community organisations establish a microgeneration and energy efficiency installation will work for them.

It aims to achieve the following outcomes:

  • Reduction in CO2 emissions

  • Increased community awareness of climate change and how changes to our behaviour can reduce it

  • Increased skills base of local trades (for example, local builders and building-service subcontractors working on renewable energy projects for the first time)

  • Reduction in energy bills

  • Reduction in reliance on imported energy and increased independence from commercial energy suppliers

  • Stronger partnerships within local communities with lasting social benefits

  • Growth of local enterprise in new technologies.

Applications are being accepted now. Capital grants will be awarded on a competitive basis at quarterly Selection Panel meetings. Please click here for a list of the funding rounds. Project Development grants will be awarded on a first-come first-served basis until all funds are spent.

Details of all aspects of the grant application process, consultants, installers and technologies are available on this website. We will also provide statistical information for all projects that have been funded, showing where the project is and the types of technologies used.

CSEP is managed by BRE. If you have any queries, please call the Changing Spaces helpline on 0845 3 671 671 or email them at info@communitysustainable.org.uk

Grants are open to not-for-profit community based organisations in England. There are two types of grant available:

Project Development Grants

Grants are available for studies investigating the feasibility of installing any combination of the microgeneration technologies listed below. The maximum grant available is £5,000 or 75 per cent of the study cost - whichever is lower.

Capital Grants

Grants are available for the purchase and installation of any combination of the following technologies:

  • Solar photovoltaics
  • Solar thermal hot water
  • Wind turbines
  • Heat pumps
  • Automated wood pellet stoves
  • Wood fuelled boiler systems
  • Micro-hydro turbines.

Funding will also be available for energy efficiency measures, such as cavity wall and loft insulation in combination with the microgeneration technology. Where these are not already in place, you will have to install them in order to qualify for a microgeneration capital grant.

Organisations can apply for up to £50,000 or 50 per cent of the project cost (whichever is lower) for installing microgeneration technologies and energy efficiency measures.

Please ensure you have read and fully understood the Guidance Notes and scheme Terms and Conditions before proceeding to the on-line application form, as grant awards are subject to full compliance with these conditions.

Alternatively you can download a paper application form or contact the helpline on 0845 3 671 671 who will be happy to send you a hard copy.