The Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) is now open for applications, with funding available for community groups, rural businesses and other organisations to enable locally owned renewable energy projects.
We’ve just awarded CARES funding to a number of projects at Panel 2 which explore innovative ways of combining technologies to make the most of the opportunities offered by green energy. A total of over £660K was awarded to 14 exciting projects.
If you’re planning a local energy project we could help you out with support from your local development officer and resources like our new step-by-step guide for projects looking to combine solar, battery storage and electric vehicle charging, to benefit from cheaper, greener electricity and payments from the Feed-in Tariff. Plus, you could get a share of the £5 million funding available this year from the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES).
What’s available?
CARES has three funding streams to help communities, not for profit groups and rural businesses realise their local energy ambitions:
- Development Loans of up to £150K to fund development costs, taking projects from feasibility through to procurement for a design and build contract
- Innovation Grants of up to £150K to accelerate new innovative activity and encourage replication of previous projects
- Enablement Grants of up to £25K to help progress energy systems projects, renewable energy projects, investigation of shared ownership or maximising the impact of community benefit. You can apply for an Enablement Grant at any time throughout the year, you don’t have to wait for a funding panel meeting.
The closing date for applications to this funding round is 19 November 2018. Details of further funding rounds are available on our funding webpage.
How do I apply?
You’ll find all the application documents and eligibility criteria on our funding webpage. The Local Energy Scotland team are on hand to help applicants through the process – find your local contact.