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INTRODUCTION

BRE manages two main renewable energy capital grant schemes, the Low Carbon Building Programme Phase 2 (LCBP2) and the Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP).

LCBP2, funded by DECC, was aimed at not-for-profit organisations and launched in December 2006. At the end of the allocation period over £80 million had been allocated to over 3500 projects. At the end of the programme in March 2011, this had reduced to £64 million and just over 2500 projects.

CSEP is funded by the BIG Lottery and started in April 2008. Out of the capital grant fund of £9 million, £8.9 million has been allocated to 433 projects. About 60% of these will also have received LCBP2 funding. Within the project development stream just over £1 million has been committed to 485 projects. These are the latest programme statistics as of the end March 2011.

As part of overseeing these grant schemes, BRE has the responsibility to gather feedback from the grant recipients and the outcomes are reported here through a series of case studies. The aim of this publication is to summarise the key lessons learnt from a cross section of completed projects in regards to community engagement, installation, specification, operation and performance. A list of nine completed projects covering all the technologies funded through the grant scheme was chosen for these case studies. All the projects selected were funded through both LCBP and CSEP programmes, apart from two. Five of these were visited and four were interviewed by telephone in order to find out how satisfied they were with the system installation and operation. This publication also highlights the feedback on grant application processes and quality of support and advice received from the grant administration team. The case studies will benefit anyone wanting to implement a community renewable energy project. They provide a clear overview of potential benefits, issues surrounding project implementation and how to make sure the system performs in line with the specifications.

The initial section of this publication provides an overview of the development of the small to medium sized renewable technology market in the UK. It outlines the influence Government policies and the capital grant schemes had on the uptake of microgeneration technologies.

The second section summarises the general lessons learnt from the case studies and reflects on how to improve future projects. It outlines the methodology used in collecting information and feedback from each project.

Finally, individual case studies are analysed and lessons are drawn from each scheme. Each case study provides detailed information on project background, installation details and key outcomes. General installation issues are covered as each project faced site-specific challenges.

Completing a thorough feasibility study including a community consultation was found to be crucial, especially for ground-mounted wind turbines. Engaging the local community at the outset of the scheme encourages community ownership which in turn provides a platform for individuals and organisations to voice their concerns, as well as find out more about the benefits and solutions.

Although permitted development rights have paved the way for standard microgeneration installations, it is important to realise that non-standard ones can still meet significant barriers. These are often at the planning stage, due to conflicting local planning priorities. For example authorities are required to increase the number of biomass installations but are hesitant to implement this in areas where air quality improvements are also prioritised^[1]. While these two objectives are not necessarily contradictory the lack of guidance for planning officers can lead to simplistic assumptions being made. In this case that installing a biomass boiler will impact negatively on air quality, even though the efficiency of many modern wood fuel appliances is extremely high, resulting in very low absolute emission levels.

Completing a thorough community consultation has been shown to be very helpful in case planning permission is required. As there are no standard set of rules for meeting planning requirements, demonstrating that the project has community support might be the deciding factor for a planning officer. There are efforts to streamline the approach taken by planning departments and suggestions are summarised in a number of publications by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)^[2].

Furthermore, successful project management plays a key role in ensuring timely and cost effective delivery of installations. This includes establishing good relationships with the various contractors, which proofed crucial to a number of projects. Projects which managed contractors separately often incurred additional costs and experienced significant delays, as there was no interaction between, for example, the solar thermal and biomass installer.