6 days ago
- Politics
- Business News Wales
Future Generations Commissioner Urges Wales to Double Ambition for Community Energy
Learners at Garnteg Primary School try out the solar panel kit helping to reduce energy bills and create a generation of planet stewards. Image by Patrick Olner.
Local power, owned and run by communities, can be the key to solving Wales' future energy needs, says the Future Generations Commissioner.
Welsh Government needs to be more ambitious so Wales has more solar, wind and water energy sources owned by and earning money for local people, said Derek Walker.
Mr Walker, whose role is to challenge government on how they're improving lives for people born in the future, wants to see more schools, health centres and community buildings in Wales powered by renewable energy, where communities earn and save money from the energy themselves.
In his Future Generations Report, he calls for more resourcing and support from Welsh Government for renewable energy projects, owned and led by community organisations and local authorities, and asks public bodies to do more to collaborate with the community, to release land for local energy schemes, and purchase the energy.
Mr Walker is meeting First Minister, Eluned Morgan, on World Environment Day, June 5, to advocate for more support for local energy. During the meeting he will share the work of Star of the Sea, Borth, an arts and music venue with roof-top solar panels, which directly powers the neighbouring NHS GP surgery.
His Future Generations Report highlights further collaborative successes, including Awel Aman Tawe and its two-turbine 4.7 MWp community windfarm 20 miles north of Swansea, and a community-owned micro-hydro turbine in Bethesda which generates electricity that is sold to the grid from the local river, with profits reinvested back into the community.
Wales has already achieved 1GW of locally owned renewable electricity and heat capacity, against its target of 1.5GW by 2035. Mr Walker said he wants to see at least a doubling of the target to 3GW by 2035. 1GW is enough to power half a million homes.
He said:
'Community energy will play a crucial role in addressing climate change, involving communities in decisions, reducing energy bills, creating jobs and helping Wales become more energy-resilient in the future.
'While Welsh Government has committed to expanding renewable energy generation by public bodies and community enterprises and good work is being done, the targets aren't ambitious enough.
'I want to see Welsh Government increase resourcing to its Energy Service, so that over the next 10 years we can unlock the latent potential and make our communities the new power hubs in Wales.' A learner at Garnteg Primary School using solar equipment helping to save the school money, and our planet. Image by Patrick Olner.
The Welsh Government Energy Service has invested £210 million in more than 400 projects since 2018, including wind farms, rooftop solar installations, low carbon heating schemes, hydropower and zero emission fleets and EV.
This, Welsh Government says, will achieve an estimated £367 million in local income and savings in their lifetimes and will have prevented the burning of nearly 300,000 tonnes of coal.
In 2023, it set a target for 1.5 GW of locally owned renewable energy generation capacity by 2035, with an expectation for all new energy projects to have at least an element of local ownership from 2020. It has also committed to expanding renewable energy generation by public bodies and community enterprises in Wales by over 100 MW between 2021 and 2026.
Paul Cowley, Community Renewables Technical Manager, Welsh Government Energy Service, said:
'Across the nation, community organisations are grappling to address very real issues from the local to the global. Community energy delivers on multiple fronts, supporting local jobs, helping to build community resilience, responding to fuel poverty and the affordability of energy and taking action to tackle the causes and effects of climate change.
'The Energy Service provides a range of technical advice and funding support to local councils and social enterprises. The latent demand for such projects is huge so we welcome the commissioner's call for more community energy in Wales.'
