About Us

Who we are

We are the voice for community energy

Community Energy England was founded in 2014 by practitioners within the community energy sector to act as the voice of the sector and help put people at the heart of energy transformation. Thanks to the support of our members, we have cemented this position and steadily increased our expertise, activities, impact and membership, whilst remaining the only organisation dedicated to representing and supporting the community energy sector in England. We now represent over 300 community energy and associated organisations involved in the delivery of community-based projects and services.

We are governed by a Board of Directors and managed by Emma Bridge, the Chief Executive, and her team.

Click here to read more about our governance and download our annual reports, which tell you about our activity and achievements over the last few years.

Membership is the heart of Community Energy England - find out more about membership and apply to join.

Our mission and values

Our vision is a thriving community energy sector integrated into and truly powering a fair, zero-carbon energy system. 

Our mission is to create the conditions within which community energy is able to thrive and scale. We will do this by:

  • Supporting a pipeline of community energy organisations across England to grow in scale and impact
  • Advocating for a policy and regulatory environment that supports the growth of community energy
  • Engaging with potential collaborators to work directly with and invest in community energy organisations

We ensure that all of our work is informed by and aligned with the following values:

  • We value diverse perspectives and believe that ideas and solutions are best achieved through cooperation among community members, stakeholders, and experts.
  • Our work is informed by the insight and experience of our members and we aim to use our knowledge in the most efficient way.
  • We are collaborative, communicative and approachable, working with other associations and networks across the UK and energy, climate and social enterprise sectors.
  • We remain open to new opportunities, to being bold, and to leading the way, ensuring that we set our direction to best enable the growth of community energy.

Our focus for 2024/25

A mid-year update for each strategic priority area has been included below. N.B. These highlight activities which may influence our planning for 2025/26 and do not attempt to cover all of our activity.

Support a pipeline of community energy organisations across England to grow in scale and impact. 

We will do this by:

  • Ensuring that we have robust data on community energy activity, barriers, opportunities and future plans to focus our support in the most effective way
  • Providing resources and tools and helping our members to learn from each other, network and share knowledge
  • Developing new workstreams for CEE to support capacity building

Mid-year updates:

  • A UK overview from our state of the sector research is now available here. Further outputs will be released in the Autumn. The data from our research is used by a wide range of stakeholders to inform their activity and to reduce the burden placed on community organisations needing to respond to data requests from multiple organisations
  • We have run regional conferences in the South East, North West, North East, and Yorkshire & Humber. Our upcoming events are available here. We are evaluating our current member working groups and have added an all-member forum to our online discussion forum
  • We are part of a consortium developing a UK Energy Learning Network (more details to be published shortly) and will be working with our members over the next few months to ensure that the Network is as impactful as possible for the sector

Advocating for a policy and regulatory environment that supports the growth of community energy.

We will do this by:

  • Building cross-political support for community energy in the run up to the Local, Mayoral and General Elections and beyond
  • Strategically focus our policy & advocacy activities to advocate for the unlocking of the most important barriers to sector growth
  • Adding to our existing evidence base and narrative to clearly demonstrate the positive impacts of community energy and the need for a policy and regulatory programme that will enable the sector to grow

Mid-year update:

  • CEE has helped to develop the thinking behind the Local Power Plan (LPP) and GB Energy and our priority is now to ensure that the LPP is designed and developed in way that will ensure the growth and increased impact of community energy
  • We worked with our members to gather information on the barriers for community energy and to ensure responses from a wide range of stakeholders to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s call for evidence on barriers to community energy. We are now using that data to shape our future activity and that of our partners and networks
  • Following the General election, we are updating our policy & advocacy resources and ensuring that we remain focused on areas that will have the most impact for our members

Engaging with potential collaborators to work directly with and invest in community energy organisations.

We will do this by:

  • Refining and updating powerful narratives for the value and potential of community energy
  • Creating connections, building relationships, and providing resources to help potential collaborators and investors
  • Developing an investment strategy for the sector that will focus our efforts to bring new infrastructure funding and impact investment into the sector

Mid-year update:

  • We will be launching a new website in 2025 to clearly communicate what community energy is, the impact it is making and the various pathways available to community energy. The website will also contribute to all of our other strategic priorities and will ensure that it is as easy as possible for anyone interested in community energy to find information that is relevant for them
  • We continue to be part of a wide range of networks, consortiums, advisory groups and partnerships. Our work on the UK Energy Learning Network (more information on this shortly) will enable us to increase our work on this and target our resources to where they will have the most impact

What we don't do

We do not get directly involved in developing community energy projects and our team cannot give technical advice for setting up a community energy project - if you are looking for advice or guidance, please visit the How To section of our website or look for consultants, installers, O&M providers and project developers on our member map. Our members have access to an online discussion forum to share issues, ideas, and solve problems.

We are also happy to help connect our members with people and organisations who can give project development advice and other assistance with running a community energy organisation. Please consider joining us to benefit from our extensive network.

How we are funded

Community Energy England is a not-for-profit organisation funded by charitable grants, membership fees and other project and event sponsorship. We are grateful to all organisations who contribute financially to our work to support the sector and help it grow.