COMMUNITY ENERGY EVOLUTION
Webinars
This page contains recordings of webinars delivered during the life of this project. There are two kinds.
In the Innovation Lab webinars, community energy organisations share their project findings and present innovative business models they have been exploring. Each webinar includes a short presentation followed by an interview and Q&A session. Please see our Innovation Page for more information on each project.
The CORE webinars are delivered by members of the Next Generation consortium. The webinars are useful for new or prospective directors of community energy organisations and others engaged in larger community energy projects. Each webinar introduces an area of practice, sign-posts key resources and provides a space for knowledge-sharing. Click here to jump down to the CORE webinars.
Innovation Lab webinars
Innovation Lab 1- Brighton Energy Co-operative
Brighton Energy Coop presented their Next Generation-funded project that looks at electric vehicle charging as an additional revenue source for large-scale solar.
Innovation Lab 2- Energy Local
Energy Local have designed a means for neighbourhoods to benefit from local energy and households to act together and reduce their bills by demonstrating they are using local renewable power when it is generated.
Innovation Lab 3- CREW Energy
CREW Energy aims to use community ownership of renewable heat to tackle three issues in society: climate change, fuel poverty and air quality.
Innovation Lab 4- Low Carbon Hub
Low Carbon Hub present Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire) which is one of the most ambitious, wide-ranging, innovative, and holistic smart grid trials ever conducted in the UK.
Innovation Lab 5- Carbon Co-op
Carbon Coop share findings from their successful People Powered Retrofit pilot service and offer insights in to the pros and cons of replication.
Innovation Lab 6- Open LV
Bridget Newbery from the Centre for Sustainable Energy discusses the Open LV project which made local electricity data openly available to communities.
Innovation Lab 7- CHEESE project
Mike Andrews and Jamie Hanlon speak about the Bristol-based Cold Homes Energy Efficiency Survey Experts (CHEESE) project. Through thermal imaging surveys, the project aims to reduce domestic energy losses, at low cost to help cut carbon emissions and support people in poor housing conditions and fuel poverty.
Innovation Lab 8- Nadder Community Energy
Nadder Community Energy share learnings from their electric car club project. Seeking to accelerate the adoption of sustainable transport in rural areas, the group (www.nadderce.org.uk) developed an operational electric car club in the village of Tisbury, Wiltshire.
Innovation Lab 9- Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative
Green Fox Community Energy Co-op sought to accelerate the decarbonisation of schools in Leicester and create a business model for zero carbon schools across the country. They partnered with the Attenborough Learning Trust and developed a model for decarbonising four of their primary schools.
Innovation Lab 10- Lockleaze Loves Solar
Seeking to develop a model for distributed solar and local trading in an urban context, Low Carbon Gordano worked in partnership with Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust in Bristol. Their project, Lockleaze Loves Solar sought to enable the local community to own and operate a 1 megawatt cluster of solar panels on 300 domestic roofs with the aim of bringing financial savings to those struggling with their energy bills, raise aspirations and provide a platform for local residents to create climate resilience and develop local enterprise.
Innovation Lab 11- Plymouth Energy Community
Justin Bear from Plymouth Energy Community (PEC) talks about their Next Generation-funded project to develop 38 net zero homes that combine affordable housing, energy and transport into an overall service for people-centred sustainable living. In partnership with seven other community-led developments which are responsible for a further 139 homes, they aim to demonstrate how a community-owned energy company can package heat, power and transport services in a manner that could be integrated more widely into new developments.
Innovation Lab 12- Bath and West Community Energy
Bath & West Community Energy's Flex Community project is designed to test and pilot the Stemy Energy cloud-based platform with 50 households providing electricity flexibility by enabling demand-side response through the automatic control of major electric-powered technologies, such as EV charge posts and heat pumps, within householder-defined comfort constraints. The project is working with Western Power Distribution to simulate real-time flexibility requests and so test the platform and householder response and validate the business model for scaling and replication.
CORE 1: The Low Carbon Hub model
Barbara Hammond and Saskya Huggins discuss how the Low Carbon Hub has been using the profits from its community owned renewable energy projects to catalyse community led action on climate change for almost a decade.
CORE 2: The evolving energy market
Felicity Jones and the team from Everoze Partners discuss changes in the energy market, including changes in revenue risks for more complex projects that include storage and flexibility services, and introducing wider trends in terms of digitalisation, charging reforms, local flex markets.
CORE 3: Introduction to Community Benefit Societies
Kathy Hopkin from Cooperative Futures discusses what a Community Benefit Society is, along with the role of Directors and the skills required to do a good job. The session also covers how Community Benefit Societies differ from other legal entities and what you are and aren’t able to do within this structure, as well as how to ensure good governance within your CBS.
CORE 4: Introduction to community share offers
Simon Borkin from Cooperatives UK outlines the main facets and features for raising community shares for renewable energy projects - the key considerations concerning the business model, governance, community engagement, and the share offer proposition itself.
CORE 5: Developing an effective PR and communications strategy
Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall from SFW Communications outlines how to promote a community investment offer. She covers: defining your PR objectives, target audience and key messages; developing a print and broadcast media list; writing an effective press release; website, newsletters and social media.
CORE 6: Essentials of society management
Barbara Hammond from the Low Carbon hub introduces the principles of running a community benefit society - providing an overview of how to develop an effective business plan and the minimum rules and policies necessary for the CBS to operate effectively. This includes key financial and management accounting principles.
CORE 7: Developing a social and environmental impact strategy
Saskya Huggins from the Low Carbon hub outlines the practicalities of producing a social and environmental impact strategy for an organisation that sets out the anticipated impact of the organisation and how a group will measure their progress towards it.
CORE 8: Managing a Community Benefit Fund
Saskya Huggins from the Low Carbon hub introduces the theory of managing community benefit funds and setting up and running a grants administration committee.