1. CRIF Community Workshop, 18th October
Sheryl French presented an introduction to CRIF, providing an overview of the
implications of national drivers and increasing global energy demand on
Cambridgeshire, including the need to: deal with rising fuel prices; respond to targets,
understand the options in an honest, sensible and transparent way – this is to be
achieved through the CRIF.
Specifically the CRIF project will help Cambridgeshire to understand:
• How much energy needs to be generated locally
• What and where the best renewable resources are
• Which the most appropriate renewable energy technologies are
• How much these cost and how they could be paid for
• Who should take a lead in making things happen in the community, public and
commercial sectors
Following this presentation, a number of key questions were raised by attendees,
including how will the people of Cambridge make decisions on these things? The
following sections attempted to answer the questions from community groups and
interested individuals.
Tim Lunel presented on the Community Pathway, to provide an overview of:
• Why communities might invest in renewable energy?
• What the potential is for communities to lead on renewable energy projects?
• How communities can delivery renewable energy projects.
It was shown that there is currently a lack of community-led renewable energy projects
in Cambridgeshire, but that there is considerable potential for communities to deliver
renewable energy projects, particularly covering Solar PV, solar thermal, heat pumps
and wind turbines to deliver energy for community buildings and homes.
A few key case study examples of projects in Cambridgeshire were presented:
• Coldham wind turbines (private ownership with community benefits)
• Upwell Park Solar PV (private ownership with community benefits)
• Potential Waterbeach Biogas project (community ownership)
• Coton Solar PV schemes for households
• Gamlingay Eco Hub and planned wind turbine
The different levels of project ownership and leadership were discussed, from projects
that are completely led and owned by community groups to developments that are
owned by the private sector but also deliver benefits to communities.
The range of type and scale of projects was presented including standalone wind
turbines, installations in community buildings and installations in groups of individual
homes.

2. The presentation also provided some key information on governance and finance
options for community energy projects and links to useful resources.
Questions from attendees following the presentation by Tim Lunel included:
• To what extent communities and individuals can trust technical advice from the
media on performance of renewable energy schemes? What if the technology (solar
PV specifically) doesn’t work?
• How can we gain more understanding from the experiences of renewable energy
outside of the UK?
• How can we avoid ‘wild west’ installers and get good advice?
A discussion followed around site selection and maintenance, which can often be more
of a consideration than the technology, and that it is important to make sure producers
have a performance guarantee or warranty of 25years to provide an insurance back-up
for replacement and maintenance.
It was clear that it is important to build up connections amongst communities and local
residents in Cambridgeshire to learn from knowledge and experience, and also to
develop links with other UK groups outside of Cambridge (e.g. Low Carbon Communities
Network), International networks such as Transition Towns and to link with other
countries such as Sweden and Spain.
It is important for community groups and individuals to choose good and local suppliers,
which can be found through accreditation schemes such as the Microgeneration
Certification Scheme (MCS) or Trade Associations.
ARE THERE ANY PROJECTS ALREADY BEING DELIVERED IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE?
Amongst the representatives at the meeting, several provided information on
renewable energy projects they are already delivering, including:
• Waterbeach community building with a Ground Source Heat Pump
• Dry Drayton PV on village hall
• Stapleford village pavilion refurbishment including Solar PV
• Rampton Drift retrofit of PV on properties
• Ely College Solar PV system
• Alcombury Village, a new village with 5,000 homes in early stages of Solar PV
• Comberton School small/medium wind turbine
• Witchford Village hall possible suitability
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS FOR POTENTIAL RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS?

3. There were a number of groups and individuals, who provided information on potential
renewable energy projects they were aware of or involved in developing, including:
• Chevely potential for new village hall with GSHP, PV, solar thermal etc
• Hydro potential in Cambridgeshire using weirs, River Cam, Cambridge’s Jesus lock
• Carbon Farling for trackable PV on farms in fields
• Large scale biomass and anaerobic digestion
WHAT LEVEL OF PROJECT OWNERSHIP WOULD YOU SEEK?
The level of ownership – whether community-led, co-led or partner-led depends on
scale of project as well as the type of technology.
Key challenges are lack of individuals to take a formal lead on projects as people are
generally very busy, which makes partnering a more feasible option in order to gain
capacity.
WHAT WOULD HELP YOU DEVELOP AND DELIVER THESE?
The key areas that communities and individuals felt would help to delivery community
renewable energy in Cambridgeshire were:
• Clear long-term Government incentives (to stop shifting goal posts e.g. Feed in Tariff
review)
• Build relationships with the media to raise awareness and increase number of ‘good
news stories’ and provide a bigger picture message
• Working with utility companies who are doing good work, for example Good Energy.
• Finding out from other local communities how they developed and financed their
projects and what skills were needed
By Sarah Gaunt
National Energy Foundation (NEF)