The Centre for Sustainable Energy is a delivery partner of the Energy Learning Network, which brings together collaborators across the UK to strengthen the community energy sector.

We support people and organisations to take action on energy in their communities, while working with councils, stakeholders and other enablers to create the conditions for community energy to grow and thrive. 

Activity overview

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Clicking on the links below will take you to the appropriate section of ashden.org/energy-learning-network/

Events
The ELN offers free, open access webinars and training events here.

Support
Access free mentoring and our technical helpline to develop projects here.

Resources
View the ELN resource directory and featured tools and guidance here.

CSE’s role

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Some of our previous work through the Energy Learning Network includes:

Widening participation

This strand focuses on removing barriers to participation for people who are under-represented in community energy groups.

CSE is working with six community energy organisations, helping them widen participation in their projects bring a more diverse range of people into the design and delivery of their projects and into their internal operations. The groups are: Grand Union Community Energy, Dorset Community Energy, Croydon Community Energy, Cwm Arian Renewable Energy, South Seeds and South Uist Renewable Energy.

In March 2026 we published a toolkit for community energy groups to help them increase their impact through greater involvement of people from across their communities. The Widening Participation toolkit is also available in Welsh.

Find out more about our learnings from the toolkit in our launch webinar recording, and access the slides here.

Expanding the sector

This strand involves running a series of webinars and workshops for the wider Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector to promote community action on energy.

These webinars showcase community-level action and how to deliver impactful local energy projects. Additional support for those entering the community energy sector will help them develop key skills and knowledge to enact changes.

The webinars took place during 2025 and you can catch up with them by clicking on the links below:

Working with local councils

The final strand is working with parish, town and community councils to promote the value of community energy. Ten councils have been supported, with officers attending workshops that will enable them to engage positively with community energy groups in their areas, and how to make meaningful, local changes.

These sessions took place during 2024 and 2025. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more about the support we provided.

Our future work is focused on

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1. Continuing to support widening participation work. Using the toolkit as a resource to support community energy groups increase their diversity and engagement
2. Help create stronger partnerships between local authorities and community energy groups
   If you would like to get in touch about either please email elncommunity@cse.org.uk

Collaborate with the Energy Learning Network

The Energy Learning Network is more than a partnership of organisations; it is shared infrastructure for the UK community energy sector, helping collaborators to share learning, avoid duplication, identify gaps and work together in ways that strengthens the sector as a whole UK wide.

Contact CSE’s Energy Learning Network Manager Jacob Hall (elncommunity@cse.org.uk) to explore collaboration opportunities, including:

• Using the network as a platform to share your learning – become a paid peer mentor or co-deliver webinars and events.
• Partnering on our Community Energy resource directory – add your resources to increase uptake.
• Collaborating on Projects to Reduce Barriers and Accelerate Learning for Community Energy, or explore joint tender opportunities with us.

CSE is a delivery partner in the Energy Learning network, alongside climate solutions charity Ashden and the leading community energy bodies in every UK nation: Community Energy England, Community Energy Scotland, Community Energy Wales and Northern Ireland’s Action Renewables.

The Energy Learning Network is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.