Community Energy Schemes

Alan Brown Excerpts

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. Like other hon. Members, I commend the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for bringing forward the debate. She set out clearly the benefits of community energy and how it would help on the path to net zero and to empower local communities. She also, importantly, set out the current barriers to setting up community energy companies. That was further illustrated by examples in the contributions of the hon. Members for North Devon (Selaine Saxby), for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas), for Waveney (Peter Aldous) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon), and the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn).

One barrier seems to be that it could cost upwards of £1 million to get set up for a generation licence. We have heard that the Licence Lite option under Ofgem simply is not working, so we need alternatives, and the Government must update rules that date back to the electricity network privatisation back at the end of the ’80s and the early ’90s. The hon. Member for Bath made important comments about bringing people on board. We need everybody to buy into the actions that we need to take to tackle climate change. If people get additional community benefits along the way, that is clearly a bonus.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

On that point, as my hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) has alluded to, not only do we need that community buy-in to allow for measures but, for too long, the energy system’s centralised nature has led to a disconnect between the consumer and the generation. By bringing them closer together, we may find that the typical consumer gains an appreciation of what is entailed in energy generation, which may bring beneficial behavioural changes on top of everything else.

[Alan Brown]

I completely agree. Actually, that touches on the point made by the hon. Member for Leeds Central that we have a grid system and a grid charging system still fundamentally based on where coal-fired power stations or nuclear power stations are sited. That needs a complete overhaul. I may touch on that a wee bit later.

[Jim Shannon]

Strangford Lough Wildfowlers and Conservation Association in Newtownards came up with a small tidal scheme, which, with a small grant, generated some electricity for its use. The scheme has allowed the club to reduce its costs and keep running. That same process could be used in many cases across the whole of the United Kingdom. Has the hon. Gentleman got any similar examples?

[Alan Brown]

The hon. Member gives a good example. I do not have any specific ones to hand, although I will touch later on how some community energy projects have been held back because of the removal of the feed-in tariff.

It is clear that hon. Members are agreed on the importance of community energy generation, and I am sure that the Minister will stand up and say that he agrees with it as well. The key thing is not just agreeing with the principle but taking action to facilitate the growth of community energy projects.

I, too, am a signatory to the Local Electricity Bill, and I pay tribute to Steve Shaw for his campaigning, dedication and ability to get so many local authorities on board behind the Bill, as well as 282 MPs and 77 national organisations, including the Energy Saving Trust, Good Energy, Forum for the Future, the New Economics Foundation, ResPublica, Solar Energy UK, the British Hydropower Association, Triodos bank, the Transition Network, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Friends of the Earth, the Wildlife Fund for Nature, Greenpeace and ClientEarth. That in itself suggests that the Bill is a good thing and should be implemented.

If we look at the energy retail market, we see how badly it is struggling. We just saw Bulb—the seventh largest company, with 1.7 million customers—go bust, so it is clear that we need alternative solutions for the provision of electricity. Clearly, local powering will not replace an organisation such as Bulb overnight, but, as I say, it is logical to try to facilitate local community-based renewable energy where possible.

Changing the regulations to make new community renewable energy businesses viable allows communities to bypass the large utility companies. It means significant additional value for local economies and, as we have heard already from other hon. Members, more money will then circulate in the local economy, leading to more skilled jobs, more viable local businesses and stronger local economies. As I touched on earlier, it empowers local people and companies to be part of the green revolution and part of the pathway to net zero. That can only help to focus minds and create the general buy-in for the need for collective action to tackle climate change.

Evidence suggests that community energy generation currently accounts for less than 0.5% of the UK total. It has been suggested that it has the potential to increase tenfold over a six-year period. As we have heard, figures from the Environmental Audit Committee suggest it could be a twentyfold increase by 2030. That would more than offset the need for new nuclear power generation, and it is something that the Government need to consider.

The Scottish Government have made strong progress towards community energy, but their efforts have been undermined by UK Government cuts. The Scottish Government had a target for 500 MW of community and locally-owned energy by 2020, which was exceeded and then increased to 1 GW by 2020. They have now doubled the target to 2 GW for 2030. Progress towards the bigger target has been positive, but, as I touched on in response to the intervention from the hon. Member for Strangford, the removal of feed-in tariffs has hindered the growth of those projects. There is a project in my constituency that never got off the ground because of the removal of the feed-in tariffs. By taking away those tariffs, the Government are blocking community energy projects, and they are not doing enough to help facilitate them in a different way so as to allow the sale of energy. That is why urgent action is needed.

The Scottish Government published an updated local energy policy statement in January. Of course, community energy projects in Scotland are further hampered at the moment by Scotland having the highest grid charges in Europe. Lucy Whitford, managing director of Renewable Energy Systems UK and Ireland, has said that

“it doesn’t feel as if charging is fit for purpose anymore for us to deliver net zero. We have worked up some examples of network costs. The additional cost per annum of a 22 MW wind farm in Argyll versus one in Essex could be £500,000. Continuing in the current direction of travel on charging reforms could add another £120,000 per year to a project, so it is very significant.”

That is why I have been calling for reform of the grid charging system.

At the moment we have the cost of living crisis, and the energy cap will increase by between £400 and £600 in April. We have the retail energy market in crisis, with 23 companies going bust since August. In 2018 there were more than 70 companies in the market, but now there are fewer than 30, so Government action is needed to reform the sector.

Meanwhile, the Tories have managed to find £1.7 billion to further develop proposals at Sizewell C, and they want to commit bill payers to a regulated asset base payment contract that will last for 60 years on top of the 10 to 15-year construction period. That is madness. The money would be much better spent on community energy growth, as we have discussed. The Local Electricity Bill is an alternative that will not cost the taxpayer or the consumer any money. In fact, it is intended to help create lower local energy costs. Like other hon. Members, I urge the Government to consider supporting the Local Electricity Bill and, if need be, work on a cross-party basis to improve the Bill and get it to a place where everybody is happy with it.