Giving the community a stake in energy

Energise Barnsley is demonstrating how taking a community approach to our future energy needs can bring real benefits to residents.

The initiative – one of the largest community energy projects in the UK – is a social enterprise that works closely in partnership with Barnsley Council. The project has installed solar panels on more than 300 council-owned homes, enabling residents to save money from bills and cut emissions by generating renewable energy, with some of the income channelled into a community pot. Projects supported to date from the community pot include battery installations, LED provision to sports facilities, energy advice clinics, charity food banks and healthy eating schemes.

Now the aim is to expand the solar arrays to 1,000 council properties across the borough in a £3 million programme, to be partly funded through the issue of a community bond, enabling local people to invest and have a stake in the success of the project.

The Energise Barnsley model is centred on the principle of community self-generation, self-storage, and self-consumption, and aims to build the resilience of communities to price shocks such as fuel bill rises.