Thrive Renewables Community Benefit Programme
CSE supports communities to take local action on the climate crisis, and one way we do this is to support them to make energy efficiency changes to their local community buildings.
Since 2015 we have supported communities to save money, save carbon and have warmer community buildings through administering the Thrive Renewables Community Benefit programme. This programme gives grants of up to £4,500 to cover improvements such as insulation, draught-proofing, LED lighting or improved heating controls to community buildings, like village halls and community centres.
2023 was the seventh year this grant programme has run, and a total of £33,000 was made available.
Applications for 2023 have now closed.
As in previous years, the programme was open to community buildings within a 20-mile radius of one of the 17 wind, hydro, solar or battery storage sites in which Thrive Renewables is invested (see map and list of postcodes below).
Energy essentials training for applicants
As part of our 2023 offer, and in response to the energy and cost of living crises, we are delivered energy essentials training to all applicants to the fund.
This training was delivered as a series of webinars and recordings of all three are available below:
- Fuel poverty awareness and basic energy advice. This webinar held on 25 October 2023 covered the issue of fuel poverty and its impact on communities. It looked at how to identify if someone is in fuel poverty and what community groups can do to support energy saving initiatives. You can watch the recording here.
As part of this session, we signposted to energy advice services near each Thrive project location. Download the details of the advice services here (Excel spreadsheet — 11KB) - Community approaches to tackling fuel poverty. Held on 22 November 2022, this webinar explored community-level initiatives for supporting people to reduce their carbon emissions and lower their bills. The aim is to help communities understand how build longer-term community energy resilience. Watch a recording of the webinar here.
- Energy efficiency in your community building. Held on 18 January 2023, this webinar provided an overview of what to consider to make your building more energy efficient –including zero-cost behaviour changes as well as higher-cost measures like renewable technologies. Successful grantees shared their experiences at this online session to act as inspiration to other community groups. Watch a recording of the webinar here.
Eligible areas
Below is a list of site names and postcodes of Thrive Renewables developments. Community buildings need to be within 20 miles of one of these to be eligible for the fund.
Sigurd KW17 2NL Clayfords AB43 6RQ Auchtygills AB43 6RQ Beochlich PA33 1BW Dunfermline KY11 8UD Loch a’Bhraoin IV23 2RB Drumduff FK1 2JU Avonmouth BS11 0YS Boardinghouse PE15 0YN | Ransonmoor PE15 0TY March PE15 0UW Eye IP23 8BW Ness Point NR32 1UZ Feeder Road BS5 9BU Haverigg II LA18 4NB Caton Moor LA2 9HF Wicken MK19 6BS |
Need inspiration?
Over the last few years, the grants have been awarded to many buildings including community centres, village halls, a cricket pavilion and a youth centre.
As part of the 2022 round, £3,573 was awarded to Eastside Community Trust to insulate their loft and add additional pipe insulation. Feedback from users of the building showed that the improvements had made a big difference.
We could definitely feel the office is warmer. It’s the talk of the office now!
Groups meeting in the other spaces have also felt the difference and said it’s made the building much more comfortable, even on the coldest days.
The building has been very busy all winter as a ‘welcome centre’, with much higher footfall than previous years. They have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from tenants and other users, both verbally and as evidenced by the number of people lingering in the space throughout the day.
Some new visitors began coming every day and staying until the building closed in the evening, telling staff they felt comfortable and welcome like they were in their own homes. The welcome centre was also recently featured on iTV.
The next round of funding
Our hope is that the programme will run again in 2024. To be the first to hear, sign up to our enews.