Many local authorities are now undertaking renewable energy projects, driven by a variety of reasons. For some its about sustainability, for others meeting emissions targets; a further aim again is cheaper energy for the council's own use, but the most often quoted is the income that can be generated.
Renewable energy can neatly meet all of the corporate aims of a local authority, whether those be community leadership, energy security, carbon benefits, jobs and growth, efficiency savings or income generation.
But there are wider roles too, that might bring local government further recognition as the hub of the energy wheel.
A good example is in relation to the national grid. Any large energy project, whether solar PV, a wind farm or AD plant, will require a connection to the grid (unless there is a large energy user on site).
The problem in some areas is that the grid is largely full ie the Distribution Network Operator has said that no further capacity can be connected up without major reinforcement work (which has to be paid for). This is a particular problem in the south.
However, if a local authority cannot get a grid connection, then other developers in its area will not be able to either. This means that projects are being held up - not a good situation for an area that wants to create new jobs and growth to continue the steady progress out of recession. But perhaps the council can help.
In a recent example I was involved with, the idea emerged that if someone could collect together all of the parties who seek a grid connection for a renewables project, then liaison with the DNO would be possible to create and cost up new capacity.
This is not the DNO's responsibility, of course; even though they are statutory bodies, their formal duties are restricted to operation of the grid and related matters. Local authorities, by contrast, have economic development functions and a clearer form of economic development would be hard to identify.
This would be enhanced if the local authority also had a large project requiring grid connection that could act as the ‘anchor tenant' in the negotiations. In the example here, the council would be developing a very large solar PV farm that would provide a sizeable amount of the fees needed to enhance the grid capacity.
Other developers find grid issues hard to deal with (particularly community schemes) and would therefore welcome the operation of this facilitative role to help them get the connection they need to deliver their projects. The DNO's would not object to this intermediary role either, as it makes their statutory duties easier to comply with.
As has been seen elsewhere, projects create jobs and employment and the APSE research paper ‘Powerful Impacts' (December 2011) demonstrated that for every pound spent on renewable energy in an area, there is £2.90 worth of benefit to the economy in cashable benefits – an almost threefold return on investment.
On average, the schemes assessed by their researchers also created 12 jobs and saved 650 tonnes pa in carbon emissions.
So by helping free up a grid logjam, the council would reap many benefits, not least the opportunity to develop its own scheme.
It is this sort of progressive thinking that is being promoted by the new APSE Energy collaboration, which seeks to bring together local authorities across the country to ensure that they explore every way in their communities can be improved by the green agenda.
Stephen Cirell is an adviser to APSE Energy and is author of A Guide to Solar PV Projects for Local Government and the Public Sector www.publicsectorenergy.co.uk
