Boost for community energy partnerships in the Feed-in Tariff
REA welcomes move to boost collaboration between developers and communities.
The REA welcomes DECC’s confirmation today that community groups and commercial developers will be able to share a grid connection for jointly developed renewable electricity projects under the Feed-in Tariff. This effectively doubles the size limit for projects developed in this way. For example, a solar farm 50/50 owned by a commercial developer and a community group can now be up to 10MW in size, instead of the usual 5MW limit.
REA Community Engagement Adviser Gaynor Hartnell said:
“This creates a powerful incentive, especially for solar project developers, to co-develop schemes with community groups, in just the scenario Ed Davey envisaged when the Community Energy Strategy was published.
“The two parties could share costs on planning and grid connection and follow the split asset model, as set out by the Shared Ownership Taskforce in its recent report.”
