Effective governance forms the backbone of successful community energy organisations, but it remains one of the least understood aspects of community energy.

To build the capacity and scalability of community energy organisations, the Greater South East Net Zero Hub (GSENZH) commissioned us to develop a governance guide for community energy. The guide brings together a wealth of lived experience and expertise, aiming to equip community energy organisations with the knowledge, tools and resources to implement good governance practices. 

Download the full guide here.

What is governance – and why does it matter?

Governance is the framework by which organisations are directed and controlled. It covers all aspects of running a successful community organisation. This includes, but isn’t limited to, having an effective board, efficient operations and processes and ensuring wide participation from the community.  

The government’s Local Power Plan has pledged to develop up to 8GW of local and community clean energy by 2030 – twice the power of the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Good governance isn’t often discussed in the context of delivering this plan, but it’s essential for scaling up the sector to help meet government ambitions. 

Challenges and priorities

To inform the guide, we spoke with community energy organisations and community energy and governance experts through meetings, workshops and interviews. We also reviewed the wealth of existing resources and support around this topic.   

We found that: 

• The culture and perception of community energy puts community energy organisations in a unique position between community enterprises and commercial businesses. This means they often need to gain the trust and support of multiple different stakeholders as well as their community.   
• Membership, volunteer engagement and the recruitment of directors are key governance challenges for community energy organisations.   
• Critical skills sometimes referred to as ‘softer skills’ like communication, stakeholder engagement and leadership are vital for well-governed community energy organisations.  

Where do we go from here?

Governance is a big and complex topic. The guide aims to support community organisations to understand where and how they can improve. Further ring-fenced funding is needed to support organisations in making these improvements, ensuring that the sector continues to grow and thrive.   

Talking with other community energy organisations and support organisations can be a massive help. We strongly recommend that support organisations create more spaces where learnings on governance best practice can be shared.  

There’s more scope to expand on this work. Future steps could include building on the guide’s findings to create a model or interactive tool. If you’d like to fund or collaborate with us in developing this work further, please do get in touch.   

Explore more on this topic

If you’re based in the South East of England, find out how the Greater South East Net Zero Hub can support you.  

Watch our talk on governance at an Energy Learning Network event.

Listen to Megan Blyth, Project Manager at CSE, speak about the importance of governance on the Greater South East Net Zero Hub podcast.