Businesses and organisations letter in support of community energy enabling clauses 272 and 273 of the Energy Bill
Tomorrow, community energy enabling clauses 272 and 273 will be debated in Parliament by the Energy Bill committee.
Below is a letter we have organised and sent to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Mr Grant Shapps, regarding the business and organisational support for these clauses. We call on the Minister to please support these clauses or put forward a workable alternative to enable community energy.
Dear Mr Shapps
Community Energy
We welcome your expressed desire to enable the growth of community energy schemes, especially your warm words at the Energy Bill’s Second Reading last month. In the midst of an energy price crisis when cheap, clean, home-produced energy has never been more vital, there is huge potential in our cities, towns and villages, for growth in small-scale renewable energy generation – especially by community groups that provide cheaper, greener power and distribute the benefits from such schemes across their local communities.
Community energy schemes have been proven to:
drive significant new investment into renewables through crowdfunding share offers,
reduce energy bills in key local services such as schools, community centres and places of worship, and
increase opportunities for volunteering and training opportunities for local people.
Such schemes currently generate a mere 0.5% of the UK’s electricity. This could grow twentyfold in ten years, according to the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee’s recent inquiry. These schemes have seen almost no growth for six years, despite renewable technologies being cheaper than ever. This is largely due to the prohibitive costs they face in accessing local markets.
The problem is well recognised, with 322 MPs from all parties, including 128 Conservatives, supporting the Local Electricity Bill, which would enable community groups to sell electricity to local customers. It is also supported by over 110 local authorities and county councils.
Your Energy Bill contains two clauses that reflect the wording of the Local Electricity Bill:
Clause 272 sets up an export guarantee scheme for smaller-scale sites that generate low carbon electricity to export it to existing larger suppliers on fair terms, and
Clause 273 sets up a supplier services scheme, requiring existing larger suppliers to work with community schemes to sell the power they generate to local customers.
We ask that you please either support these two clauses remaining in the Energy Bill or put forward an alternative proposal that would realise the huge potential for more community energy schemes.
Yours sincerely
Patrick Begg, Outdoors and Natural Resources Director
National Trust
The Rt Revd Graham Usher, Lead Bishop for the Environment
Church of England
The Rt Revd John Arnold, Environmental Lead
Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales
Roger Mortlock, CEO
CPRE, the countryside charity
Paul Branston, Regulatory & Government Affairs Manager
National Grid Electricity Distribution
Basil Scarsella, CEO
UK Power Networks
Ian Smyth, CEO
Electricity North West
Nina Skorupska CBE, Chief Executive
Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology
Rachel Hayes, Policy Manager
Solar Energy UK
Kate Gilmartin, Chief Executive
British Hydropower Association
Emma Bridge, Chief Executive
Community Energy England
Zoë Holliday, Interim CEO
Community Energy Scotland
Ben Ferguson, Co-executive Director; Leanne Wood, Co-executive Director
Community Energy Wales
Ollie Pendered, Chief Executive
Community Energy South
Syed Ahmed, Chair
Community Energy London
Ian Cass, Managing Director
Forum for Private Business
Beth Thoren, Environmental Action & Initiatives Director
Patagonia
Mark Constantine, CEO
Lush
Tim Smit, Co-founder
Eden Project
Bevis Watts, CEO
Triodos Bank UK
Stew Horne, Head of Policy
Energy Saving Trust
Katie-Jo Luxton, Executive Director of Global Conservation
RSPB
Doug Parr, Policy Director
Greenpeace
Dave Timms, Head of Political Affairs
Friends of the Earth
Richard Quallington, Executive Director
Action with Communities in Rural England
Joan Edwards OBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs
The Wildlife Trusts
Judy Ling Wong CBE, Honorary President
Black Environment Network
Jonathan Owen, Chief Executive
NALC - National Association of Local Councils
Wera Hobhouse MP, Energy and Climate Change Spokesperson
Liberal Democrat Party
Carla Denyer, Co-Leader; Adrian Ramsay, Co-Leader
Green Party
Alan Brown MP, Spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero
Scottish National Party
Ben Lake MP, Chair of the Fuel Poverty All Party Parliamentary Group
Plaid Cymru
Keith Melton, Chair
Green Liberal Democrats
Sophie Macken, Director of Engagement
Good Law Project
Tommy Vickerstaff, UK Team Leader
350
Steve Trent, CEO & Founder
Environmental Justice Foundation
David Cowdrey, Director of External Affairs
MCS Charitable Foundation
Miatta Fahnbulleh, Chief Executive
New Economics Foundation
Merlin Hyman, Chief Executive
Regen
Phillip Blond, Director
ResPublica
Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive
Social Enterprise UK
Robert Schrimpff, CEO
Solar for Schools
Michael Thomas, Lead Link
Transition Together
Dr Barbara Hammond MBE, CEO
Low Carbon Hub
Terry McGivern, Director
UK Community Works
Kate Metcalf, Co-Director
WEN - Women's Environmental Network
James Palmer, Chair
Eastern Powerhouse
Simon Dawes, UK Chair
Protect Our Winters
Alex Schlicke, Co-Director
SCENE - Social Enterprise for Local Energy Futures
Chris Henshaw, Founder
Bluenergy
David Elbourne, CEO
Solarplicity
Deborah Tomkins, Co-Chair
Green Christian
Ellie Harrison, Founder
Power for the People
Hannah McCollum, Founder & CEO
ChicP
Isaac Beevor, Co-Director
Climate Emergency UK
Jeff Whittingham, CEO
Sitigrid
Lisa Ashford, CEO & Director
Ethex
Philip Revell, Convenor
Scottish Communities Climate Action Network
Rev Dr Darrell Hannah, Chair
Operation Noah
Leo Murray, Co-director (Innovation & Engagement)
Possible
Hugh Goulbourne, Director
CO2Sense
Jake Burnyeat, Managing Director
Communities for Renewables
Adam Cropper, Managing Director
Elements Energy
Mark Cropper, Director
Ellergreen Hydro
Jasmine Owens, Writer, Researcher and Director
Ethical Consumer
Claire Humphreys, Director
Naturesave
Paul Gilligan, CEO
Pure Leapfrog
Cat Hobbs, Director
We Own It
Tom Greenwood, Managing Director
Wholegrain Digital
Steve Shaw, Director
Power for People