Target needed to boost community ownership of renewables

The government should set a target for one-third of all new onshore renewables to be in community ownership, the IPPR thinktank has urged.

In a new paper, the left of centre thinktank calls for an extension of community ownership to spur grassroots action on climate change.

The paper, entitled The Climate Commons: How communities can thrive in a climate changing world, recommends that the UK government should set goals to “significantly increase” the proportion of community-owned green economy assets.

These could include a target for one-third of new onshore renewables to be under community ownership, it says.

Such community ownership targets could extend to other green economy resources, such as renewable heating.

Facilitating these “local climate commons” could accelerate progress towards addressing the climate crisis by increasing local communities’ participation in the transition to net-zero emissions.

Giving communities greater control and a bigger share of the benefits of the net-zero transition will boost the political mandate for addressing the climate crisis, the paper adds.

The IPPR also recommends that the government should use its planning reforms as an opportunity to expedite applications for community-led projects, like community-owned wind turbines.

Luke Murphy, head of the IPPR Environmental Justice Commission and one of the paper’s authors, said: “Empowering communities with new powers and resources has the potential to unlock an accelerating, transformative approach to addressing the climate and nature crisis.

“Under the radar there are already flourishing and transformative community initiatives to pool resources and create shared low carbon energy, housing, and natural assets. While often set up to tackle other issues, such as poverty or poor housing, these community actions also reduce carbon emissions as a co-benefit.”

However, Paul Hewett, chief executive of renewable energy operator and developer Belltown Power, warned the House of Commons Welsh Affairs committee that it is “slightly dangerous” to focus on small scale, community-owned renewables projects.

He said that small-scale wind and solar projects are “incredibly expensive” and have not dropped in price over the last five years ago, during which time the cost of turbines deployed on larger schemes has plunged.