Subscribe to our mailing list
If you’d like to keep up to date with all the news and activities from Community Energy Wales, sign up below. We won’t share your details with anyone else, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Our History
2012
CEW established by it’s founding members. A group of 7 organisations came together to set up Community Energy Wales. These included Awel Aman Tawe, The Green Valleys, Robert Owen Community Banking Fund, Sharenergy, Development Trusts Association (DTA) of Wales, Cwm Harry and Severn Wye Energy. They were involved in supporting the establishment of Renew Wales a support programme for communities taking action on climate change, which was delivered by DTA Wales.
2013
Llangattock Green Valleys launch share offer for their hydro schemes. This was one of the first schemes funded via a community share offer and sparked a raft of other projects which raised £millions in community shares to develop a range of community owned energy projects.
2014
CEW works with Robert Owen Community Banking Fund to develop the Community Energy Fund following funding from the Big Lottery Fund to provide the financial support required to advance community energy projects from initial feasibility through to installation. It pioneered an approach to development loans, which were then adopted by the Welsh Government Energy Service.
2015
CEW employ their first employee. Rob Proctor is recruited as part time Business Development Manager, working 3 days a week to help develop and grow the organisation. As a result CEW opens up its membership to community organisations across Wales, quickly developing a membership of over 50 organisations.
2016
CEW successfully secure funding in partnership with Energy Local to help roll out the existing Bethesda Energy Local club to other communities in Wales. CEW mobilised support from grassroots community energy groups across Wales to assist with the development of Energy Local Clubs across the country. Alongside local renewable generators and communities, we worked to identify where successful clubs could form and provide an important link between the Energy Local CIC and the local clubs.
2017
CEW establish YnNi Teg to develop a 900kW community owned wind turbine. It is built in 2017 and over £500k raised through a community share offer. In addition to this, CEW also partner with RWE (Formerly Innogy) to win a joint tender to develop the Alwens Forest Wind Farm, enabling the opportunity for part ownership of the project by the community.
2018
CEW worked with members to successfully appeal to the Welsh Government to provide business rate relief for Community owned Hydro’s who were suffering as a result of massive increases in business rates. This support has continued and is still available to community organisations with hydropower, helping to ensure their long term sustainability. 2018 also saw the addition of a new member of staff. Beca Roberts joined in 2018 as Membership and Communications Officer.
2019
CEW have a stall at the Eisteddfod in Llanrwst and launch CyfranNi (now RhanNi) - a network for people who support Community Energy and who would be interested in investing in community energy projects. The launch at the Eisteddfod leads to 800 people signing up to CyfranNi. CEW also ran a petition at the Eisteddfod, calling for the Eisteddfod to aim for zero carbon by 2025 which received over 700 signatures.
2020
CEW secured funding through the Welsh Governments Foundational Economy programme to establish YnNi Teg as a community owned developer to help accelerate the development of community energy projects in Wales. YnNi Teg is currently developing a pipeline of over 40MW of community renewable projects currently and now has 7 members of staff.
2021
CEW deliver the first standalone Welsh State of the Sector Report for Wales and secure funding to deliver it for the next 3 years. This report helped to feed into Welsh Governments Renewable Energy Deep Dive with many of the recommendations included within the Deep Dive recommendations which directly influence the support the Welsh Government is providing to the sector.
2022
This year saw significant changes at CEW both in terms of the resources of the organisation and the diversity of work that we do. Funding from Welsh Government and Big Lottery has enabled CEW to grow, now employing 6 people. It has also enabled CEW to develop it’s work outside of just renewable energy to develop an EV Car club network, setting up a new Renewable Heat working group and supporting the work of the successful Energy Efficiency working group.