Community and renewable energy funding open for applications

19 Apr 2018

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The Scottish Government has launched a call for applications to its Community And Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) with up to £5 million available.

Administered and managed by Local Energy Scotland, CARES was established by the Scottish Government to encourage local and community ownership of renewable energy across Scotland.

The CARES loan fund has been operating since 2011 and is a flagship scheme which aims to provide loans towards the high-risk, pre-planning consent stages of renewable energy projects which have significant community engagement and benefit.

Funding is available across three different grants and loans, with the first of the quarterly funding windows now open.

Scotland aims to meet a target of 1GW of locally generated energy by 2020.

Speaking at the annual CARES Conference, energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “This Scottish Government scheme has helped over 200 renewable energy initiatives get up and running and since 2013 has made £35m available to support councils, community groups, non-profit organisations and small and medium sized businesses to deliver projects in their communities.

“CARES has been a real tremendous success story, and I want to ensure that it continues. The move towards a more localised energy approach requires a more flexible funding package to better reflect the future needs of communities developing projects in this evolving space. I am delighted to confirm we have made some positive changes to CARES funding to ensure it is aligned with our vision for Scotland’s energy system and can support the likely diverse range of projects coming forward.”

Chris Morris, Local Energy Scotland manger, said: “The current funding streams enable us to replicate the success of existing local energy projects as well as support new innovations that are emerging. We can now use clean electricity in our cars as well as our appliances, and there are different renewable options for heating our homes. As we look forward we expect to see more community projects adopting smart systems that balance how energy is locally generated and consumed.”