Energy Local: Championing co‑operation and community energy

Energy Local is a Co‑operatives UK member doing ground‑breaking work enrolling people in green energy at grassroots level and giving them the opportunity to save money while saving the planet. 

It was created to support groups across the country to set up community energy co‑ops, which they call ‘clubs.’ With masses of sector expertise, the Energy Local team provide training, guidance and back‑room support.

“We do all the behind‑the‑scenes stuff, working within the industry and training people locally so they can explain what an Energy Local club is,” said Technical Innovation Director, Mary Gillie.

“We support them through the process of setting up the co‑ops. We sponsor the rules and help them get registered. We do their accounts for them as well, if they need it, and make sure they file everything properly with the Financial Conduct Authority.” 

“To date, we mostly work with hydro and solar installations. We have one wind and one anaerobic digestion installation, which makes biogas and puts it through a turbine. This works by fermenting any kind of waste: grass, wood etc, creating gas out of it and burning the gas.

“Ideally, we’d like to have wind or hydro and solar together, so when it’s raining people can get hydro power and when it’s sunny, they get the solar – they get a combination.”

Funding for the installations comes from share offers and loans. And once an installation is ready, members use the electricity it produces – at the time it’s generating power – at a lower price than from a traditional supplier. They then sell any surplus to the supplier at the going market rate. 

“Normally, a traditional supplier would pay around 7 pence per unit of electricity but the members pay more than this. For example, at the moment it’s 14 pence for the local installation’s power. 

“This is still less than they’d pay a traditional supplier from the grid, so it’s a win‑win for both the local energy source and the members of the co‑op,” Mary explained. 

Energy Local currently works with nine energy co‑ops all over the country, with half a dozen more in the pipeline.

“We started off in Wales and have co‑ops on the south coast. We’ve got one in Brixton in south London on a block of flats. The members of this co‑op are getting the electricity from their installation for 6.5 pence a unit – it’s a massive discount. 

“There are 27 people in the Brixton co‑op as that’s a smaller one, but there’s usually between 100‑200 members in these groups. We try and make sure people get a saving of between 10 and 30 percent. It varies from site to site.” 

With more and more people catching on to the advantages of community energy, Mary and her team are excited about their future growth. 

“We have a club in Totnes that we’re hoping to start and one near Lincoln,” she said. “We’re also hoping to set some up in Scotland over the next few months and in the Lake District. And we’re branching out from community owned generators to some businesses.” 

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