Isra-Mart srl:Coalition calls on 'big society' to embrace small energy

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Communities and businesses keen to take advantage of the UK's renewable energy incentives will from today be able to receive additional guidance from the government, after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched a web site designed to help organisations generate their own energy.

Dubbed Community Energy Online, the new site offers local authorities and community groups detailed advice and case studies demonstrating how to select and deliver local low-carbon and renewable energy projects.

The guidance includes information on how to select the right technology, raise the necessary finance, qualify for relevant incentives such as the feed-in tariff and renewable heat incentive, and comply with regulations.

Announcing the launch of the site at the Combined Heat and Power Association annual conference, climate minister Greg Barker said the government's support for community-scale renewable energy projects, such as district heating systems or wind farms, epitomised the government's "big society" agenda.

"Community energy is a perfect expression of the transformative power of the big society," he said. "With the right combination of incentives and freedoms, community groups, businesses and organisations can get together to build a cleaner and greener future. They can generate their own heat and electricity and their own profits and, as a byproduct, help the UK to save energy and help to cut carbon emissions."

The web site is the latest in a series of measures from the government designed to facilitate the rollout of community-scale renewable energy projects, which critics have long claimed have been neglected in favour of onsite and larger-scale projects.

For example, the coalition government recently overturned a ban on local councils selling electricity back to the national grid in an attempt to make renewable energy projects on local authority land more attractive.

The push to promote community projects has been broadly welcomed by the renewable energy industry, although concerns remain that while the government has committed to launching the renewable heat incentive next year, it could still scale back the feed-in tariff scheme.

DECC said in the wake of the spending review that it would aim to keep incentives at their current level for the first phase of the scheme, which runs until 2012. But speaking in the House of Commons earlier this month Barker hinted that changes could come thereafter, signalling that the government is looking at changing the incentives for larger photovoltaic field arrays.