Communities across the Lothians could soon harness the benefits of solar energy with new government funding.
£20,000 has been awarded to the East Lothian Climate Hub as part of a joint application to explore community energy at a sites across the region.
A partnership of three regional climate action hubs will now look at the development of sites across West, Mid and East Lothian. The funding will explore the feasibility of sites for renewable energy, especially solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, to generate energy for their communities as well as income.
The news was announced by Gillian Martin, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy as part of the first round of a £5.5m CARES Community Energy Generation Growth Fund.
The award from CARES – the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme – was secured in a joint application – CommonWatt – led by West Lothian Climate Action Hub. The three hubs have each put forward two sites each for feasibility study. These were selected from a short list, or pipeline, of more than 30 potential photo-voltaic sites.
East Lothian sites selected for Community Energy funding
This first stage will involve technical analysis of the six selected sites. For West Lothian, these are Xcite Linlithgow leisure facility and Winchburgh Niddry Castle Golf Club. In East Lothian, they are provisionally Tyninghame Village Hall and Cockenzie House. Midlothian also has a short list of suitable sites, pending initial feasibility assessment.
Those involved with the buildings see their potential to generate energy not only for use locally, but sell on, creating earnings that are ploughed back into the area.
Neil Barnes, Senior Development Worker with WLCAN, led the application. He said: “We’re delighted to have received this funding boost from Local Energy Scotland to help us better understand the costs, benefits, technical aspects and overall potential of community-owned solar systems at several pre-selected sites across our territories.
“The South East Scotland Hubs, including our three Lothians, are working closely together as part of our new, innovative ‘CommonWatt’ project to share knowledge, experience and passion for positive, sustainable change. We have been envisaging for quite some time community-owned, cooperative energy as a key priority to help our local communities become more resilient, self-sufficient and reduce our carbon emissions too.
“We look forward to working with the appointed experts, local organisations and friends in other regions to help us with our big plans and a growing pipeline of more than 30 sites.”
Bobby Pembleton, Manager for the East Lothian Climate Hub, said: “We are extremely grateful to Local Energy Scotland for awarding this funding, and to Neil Barnes from West Lothian for tirelessly leading the charge. I believe that we must collaborate rather than compete to tackle the climate crisis, and this collaboration between West, Mid- and East Lothian Climate Action Networks to enable more community-owned energy helps prove the case that we can work better together.
“It will be so exciting to support these local initiatives, while also developing the regional Climate Action Hub proposition on supporting feasibility studies (and more) for community-owned energy sites.”
Decarbonise Tyninghame, the group behind the feasibility at Tyninghame Village Hall, have previously worked with CARES to help local residents at 26 properties identify low-carbon heating options. Exploring PV and renewable energy options at the village hall will further their goal to “decarbonise Tyninghame as a community.”
CARES funding announced during Scotland’s Climate Week
The Cabinet Secretary announced these first sites among 46 across the country, during a visit to an Edinburgh Solar Co-op as part of Scotland’s Climate Week.
“This funding, for stand-alone generation projects, responds to the needs of local groups and has the potential to lever in significant funds for communities,” said Martin.
“Scotland is fast becoming a global renewable energy powerhouse, and it is vital that communities share in the benefits from this transition.”
Local Energy Scotland manager Chris Morris and UK Government Minister for Energy Michael Shanks were also in attendance. They congratulated the community groups who worked hard to develop inspiring proposals, which were rewarded with this first round of feasibility funding.
The CARES/Community Energy Generation Growth Fund is part of a £13.8 million package for Scotland provided by both Scottish and UK governments. West Lothian led the application to Local Energy Scotland, which administers scheme and associated funds.
About CARES and the Community Climate Action Hubs
The Community Climate Action Hubs are a network of 24 regional community hubs and part of the Scottish Government’s strategic regional approach to climate change action. These hubs are run by local experts connected to community organisations and cross-sector partners, varying in size, scale, and employ different models of working. Each hub empowers local groups by offering training, seed funding, collaboration opportunities, and a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices.
www.gov.scot/policies/climate-change/community-led-climate-action
The Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) supports communities to engage with, participate in and benefit from the energy transition to net zero emissions. CARES is managed by Local Energy Scotland and offers a range of financial support to local energy projects.
www.localenergy.scot
The six sites are: Winchburgh Niddry Castle Golf Club and Xcite Linlithgow (West Lothian); Tyninghame Village Hall, and Cockenzie House (East Lothian); Midlothian has a shortlist of sites pending final assessment.
Common Wattage and Climate Hubs point of contact:
West Lothian Hub: caroline@wlcan.scot or call 07886 639459.
East Lothian Hub: tom@eastlothianclimatehub.org or call 07706455377
Midlothian Hub: bruno.santos@midlothianclimateaction.org.uk
