Date: 2024-05-26 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018042
Clean Energy Initiatives
UK100
UK100 is a network of local leaders committed to 100% clean energy ... Financing Local Clean Energy in the South West.
Peter Burgess
The ambition of local leaders to facilitate the transition to clean energy is high. But they are stymied by a lack of capacity and capability when it comes to turning that ambition into reality, especially when it comes to accessing the private green finance that is available. We have teamed up with policy experts, local leaders, developers and financiers to explore ways to solve this problem.
Our answer – develop Clean Energy Action Partnerships, so that national government can build an industrial strategy with local leaders, focused on place.
We kicked off in January with the first ever national conference on financing the transition to local clean energy, where we connected local authorities with those ready to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in private finance. We are continuing by hosting a series of five workshops across England, with the five local energy hubs, to better understand current development and financing of local energy projects. This programme fulfils the recommendation from the Green Finance Taskforce that there should be events to connect private finance with local authorities keen to develop clean energy projects. The events are organised in partnership with each local energy hub and supported by Siemens, SSE Enterprises and Abundance.
The first workshop “Financing Energy in the South East” was held in June in Cambridge, followed by one in Leicester for the Midlands last month, and on Friday 15th November we host our third one in Bristol, covering the South West. We’re bringing together sector experts and senior decision-makers for an interactive debate about green finance and the roles to be played by both public organisations and private business and investors. We’ll hear updates from the South West Energy Hub, our sponsors Siemens and from those who are both developing and investing in projects across the South West. Surgery sessions, hosted by our sponsors Abundance, SSE and Siemens will allow attendees to gain further awareness of the issues involved in the transition to clean energy.
Longer term, insights will be gathered from all five workshops and turned into an Insight Report. This will share common themes, barriers and opportunities for implementing integrated local energy projects nationally.
Every area of the UK has the potential to develop clean, integrated, local energy projects that deliver better homes, improved transport, high quality jobs, carbon reductions and long-term financial returns. Some of the solutions will be unique but there are many common themes that are emerging from the workshops, and some changes in national policy that would enable local leaders’ ambition to be translated into reality and for green finance to flow in to UK clean energy projects. By assisting local leaders to succeed in the shift to clean energy, we believe we can smooth the path towards the national transition.
Published by Polly Billington Director at UK100
Published • 1mo 1 article
Follow Am in Bristol on Friday talking local clean energy and how local authorities can access private finance to make integrated at-scale clean energy projects a reality. #greenenergy #climatechange #bristol #renewables #cleanenergy Victor Sellwood Dan Hird
Open PDF ... UK-Green-Finance-Taskforce-Report-2019