Building Community Wealth through Energy Communities

On the August bank holiday weekend, I gave a talk at the Between the Trees festival which was held in Candleston Woods, by Merthyr Mawr.

The woods sits next to the sand dunes which run alongside Afon Ogwr before it runs into the sea. I’ve spotted wild deer in those dunes before now. It’s an idyllic spot. Being among the trees is always so calming.

My talk was about community energy and community wealth building. I explained how community energy can help people to come together to build assets for community, so that long-term, an income can be generated to invest in that community.

The profit generated from these assets in a community can be spent on democratically decided local priorities and is able to circulate locally and multiply.

A version of community wealth building is being pioneered in the city of Preston, in England. There, large anchor organisations like the hospital, the universities and the local authorities buy as much as they can in terms of goods and services from firms based in the local area. They especially aim to contract with social enterprises, where they can.

Currently, regulation prevents it, but we are working with our colleagues on Community Energy Scotland and Community Energy England to campaign for community energy businesses to be able to sell the energy they generate locally to local consumers. This would save money on bills for the customer, it would provide a small profit for the community energy business and it would help with the enormous challenge of grid balancing.

Such a change would enable us to build energy communities. An energy community is a group of local people, in the same area - households, businesses, and organisations that work together to generate, use, store, and share energy, typically from renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro, or battery storage.

The new Welsh government has committed to developing energy communities in their manifesto.

It says “we will…

• Prioritise meaningful community ownership and back the development of energy communities – supporting communities to come together to generate, use and conserve as much electricity and heat as they can locally and collectively, building energy self-sufficiency and helping to reduce bills.

Community Energy Wales stands ready to work with the new government to roll out this exciting vision, so that all communities can see the widespread and long term benefits that come with owning energy assets.