Promoting Sustainable Energy: Learning from the South West
A report on a Study Visit by a delegation from Cumbria and the North West
8-10 December 2008
Authors
Rebecca Willis and Jenny Wain
Edited by Bob Cartwright
December 2008
Promoting sustainable energy: Learning from the South West
1. Executive Summary
In June 2008 the Lake District National Park held a Low-carbon Lake District Conference. Conference delegates felt we needed to build on its success by learning from best practice elsewhere; and that we probably needed some form of sustainable energy ‘centre of excellence’ in Cumbria.
Between 8 and 10 December 2008 a delegation from Cumbria and the North West visited Devon and Cornwall to learn from the South West’s experience in promoting sustainable energy, and to gather advice on how Cumbria might proceed. The purpose of the visit was, as a group, to learn about this region’s approach to sustainable energy management and its associated governance arrangements.
Recommendations for Cumbria and the North West
· There is a need for champions at the local and regional level. For example, the Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership and RegenSW work hard to raise the profile of sustainable energy, and make sure that it is integrated into other policies and strategies;
· It helps if the strategic ‘champions’ are closely linked to delivery partners and projects;
· There is a need to investigate further the link between large scale renewables projects (such as onshore and offshore wind farms) and community-level projects. If Cumbria felt more ‘ownership’ of energy issues, would that build greater awareness and action on climate change?
· There is a need to consider supply and demand together, as RE4D does. The sustainable energy supply chain in Cumbria is underdeveloped, and increasing demand without supporting the supply side could be counterproductive;
· The economic development potential of renewable and sustainable energy is considerable, and should be a key aim of Cumbrian approaches, following the example of RE4D and RegenSW;
· Cumbria should consider ways of linking different voluntary groups together, as has happened around Dartmoor. The Lake District National Park could facilitate this.
This report begins with a background to the visit and an outline of the national picture and Cumbria’s experience. A summary of the presentations we received follows, incorporating opinion on the strengths, weaknesses and potential opportunities for Cumbria and the North West. The report concludes with some reflections. The comments are those of the authors, Rebecca Willis and Jenny Wain. All editorial changes and any errors are attributable to me.
Bob Cartwright Lake District National Park Authority December 2008
2. Background
In June 2008 the Lake District National Park held a Low-carbon Lake District Conference. This conference formally launched the report we had asked Rebecca Willis to produce, entitled Low-carbon Lake District: Responding to climate change in the National Park. You can read a copy of the report and the conference proceedings at www.lake-district.gov.uk/climatechange.
Conference delegates felt we needed to learn from best practice elsewhere and that what we probably needed in Cumbria was some form of sustainable energy ‘centre of excellence’.
The Lake District National Park, with Rebecca Willis, set up the visit, which took place between 8 and 10 December 2008. It enabled a delegation from Cumbria to learn from the South West’s experience in promoting sustainable energy, and to gather advice on how Cumbria should proceed. We were particularly interested in the South West because of the similarities between the two regions: the importance of landscape and tourism; the potential for wind and tidal power, and biomass; and the economic challenges associated with rurality and declining industry.
The purpose of the visit was, as a group, to learn about this region’s approach to sustainable energy management and its associated governance arrangements. A copy of the programme and a list of those attendees are at Annex 1. You can contact any of us for more information and feedback. Annex 2 says something about the organisations and people we met and their contact details.
3. The National Picture
The UK government has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 80% over the next forty years, with a 30-40% reduction by 2020. This is a significant challenge, and each region of the UK will need to contribute. Tackling climate change can bring significant benefits to the local economy, particularly as national government policy and funding streams provide an incentive to cut carbon.
Responsibility for some aspects of tackling climate change is increasingly being devolved to regions and local areas, who have responded in different ways. Many now have local strategies, and organisations tasked with leading the way on climate change. The most proactive local areas, such as the South West, have been successful in levering in additional resources from regional, national and European level to help them carry out their responsibilities.
4. Cumbria’s experience so far
Cumbria’s Strategic Partnership recently agreed a Climate Change Strategy, committing all members to take action to reduce carbon emissions. The County has also signed up to a target (NI 186) to reduce carbon emissions per capita. Events such as the recent Low-Carbon Lake District Conference show that there is considerable enthusiasm for developing sustainable energy solutions in Cumbria, though the sector is less well-developed than in other parts of the UK. The County’s main contribution so far is the development of onshore, and now offshore, wind farms – but these cause controversy because of the landscape implications.
Cumbria’s Economic Strategy includes a commitment to develop the energy and environmental technologies sector in the County, and the Cumbria Renewables Panel has been established to provide specialist advice on developing the renewables sector. A recent study for Cumbria Vision (the sub-regional economic agency) estimated that there is considerable potential for job creation in the sustainable energy sector, in areas such as biomass and biogas supply chains, and small-scale energy installations. On the West Coast the £2 billion ‘Energy Coast’ masterplan aims to regenerate West Cumbria through creating a centre of excellence for energy technologies including nuclear and renewables.
There is currently no organisation in Cumbria specifically tasked with promoting or co-ordinating sustainable energy projects, though one has been proposed.
This visit therefore came at a crucial time: there is considerable commitment and enthusiasm for action, and a search for solutions – with some room for manoeuvre.
5. A summary of the Presentations
5.1 Keith Gillanders, Regen SW
RegenSW is the sustainable energy agency for the SouthWest region. Its mission is to unlock sustainable energy business opportunities; accelerate uptake of the region’s renewable energy resources; and champion energy efficiency. It is core funded by the Regional Development Agency.
Keith began by stressing the urgency of tackling climate change. RegenSW asks the question, ‘How can the South West meet its energy needs’? The region is unlikely to meet its 2010 targets. It currently has 40 MW of heat installations (968 schemes), and 151 MW of renewable electricity (390 schemes, of which 67% is from landfill gas and 18% wind energy). This is far below what is possible: there is potential for 1000 MW of onshore wind.
Because it is so difficult to meet the targets, Keith believes that the region should focus on the big schemes that can deliver significant amounts of power. Most of their time is spent supporting energy businesses, and periodically, they do a ‘wind push’, meeting with wind energy developers and encouraging them to consider projects in the SouthWest.
RegenSW recently commissioned a study showing the importance of renewable energy and energy efficiency for the regional economy. There are 310 firms in the sector, supporting over 9000 jobs and bringing in £686 million in GVA (turnover of £100 million). But the sector as a whole is less than 1% of total firms, jobs or GVA.
RegenSW’s mission has recently expanded to include energy efficiency, and it now shares offices with the regional Energy Saving Trust representative.
It also provides a link or co-ordination role for the ‘county champions’, subregional partners including the Cornwall Sustainable Energy Partnership and Renewable Energy 4 Devon (see below).
RegenSW recently mapped the ‘road to 2020’ – how the SouthWest could contribute to the target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. Other potential future areas of work include:
· A focus on offshore renewable energy, following from the ‘wave hub’ project;
· An increased focus on renewable heat, working on supply and demand;
· Looking at low-carbon retrofits of existing buildings.
The organisation has a very clear business plan, to work strategically across the region. They make a point of not going to routine meetings and are clear about what they don’t do e.g community engagement.
It is hard to know how to evaluate RegenSW. Their success cannot be measured by megawatts alone.
There was considerable discussion about the balance between supporting large-scale commercial renewables developments, and smaller-scale community schemes. Keith suggested that smaller-scale schemes could be counter-productive, because they allow a community to say that they have done their bit, making them more likely to oppose large renewables projects. Others felt that smaller-scale schemes had an important role in raising awareness and encouraging people to take action on climate change. Cathy King (Bovey Climate Action – see below) stressed the importance of moving from a ‘mainframe’ model of energy supply and demand (large-scale generation, one-way flow to passive consumers) to a ‘distributed’ model of energy, similar to the internet – lots of small distributed energy generators linked through the grid.
Strengths
· They take a targeted and focused approach to strategic delivery.
· They develop a Business Plan every two years to reflect and respond to strategic change.
· They stay focused on several key themes and deliver time focused projects.
· The have developed a culture around this approach and are only involved in meetings where they can add value.
Weaknesses
· They can be seen to exclude more community based organisations and approaches.
· They don’t see community based renewables as having a key role in energy production or generation, but they do see them as playing a part in demand reduction.
Opportunities for the North West
· A different approach is currently being supported by the NWDA by funding different established agencies to help facilitate development in the local economy. Sustainable energy is primarily promoted to business through Envirolink. Sub-regional Renewables Officers are also about to be appointed via Envirolink to help deliver on the ground.
· There should be an opportunity to shape the role of this post for Cumbria and the Cumbria Renewables Panel could have a role here. The obvious gap appears to be the lack of a strategic approach and strong leadership to ensure the wider picture is being effectively delivered.
· Currently the NWDA Climate Change action plan plays a role. The NW Sustainable Energy Strategy is weak. A new strategic approach could be developed that builds on the new impetus associated with delivering NI 186 and 188.
5. 2 Melanie Sealey, Renewable Energy 4 Devon
Renewable Energy 4 Devon (RE4D) was originally a two-year, £1.1 million project, and a complex collaboration between Devon County Council (the accountable body), Devon Association for Renewable Energy (a voluntary group), Global Action Plan (a national level voluntary group working with communities to raise awareness), West Country Energy Action, and others. It was funded by ERDF Objective 2 money and Devon Renaissance (which supports regeneration in rural areas). RE4D has a core team of six, and three part-time staff.
Melanie said that much of the motivation for RE4D was economic. Devon’s energy costs are £1 billion, of which 97% goes out of the County, despite the fact that they have diverse natural resources. The County sees the environmental technology sector as an important growth area, given that traditional industries of farming and tourism are under threat. RE4D was set up to make the develop a low-carbon economy in Devon, and to offer the independent information, support and funding which had been lacking.
RE4D fits well with Devon’s ambition to be England’s greenest county. Devon’s economic strategy states that the environment is a key driver. There are now targets for renewable energy built into the Local Area Agreement.
RE4D offers the following:
· Mentor support, from enquiry to installation – up to five days support are offered for SMEs and community groups, to help with microgeneration projects. To be eligible for support, energy efficiency measures have to have been installed already.
· Installer support: networking and training for renewable energy businesses. RE4D has a full-time business support person, and works closely with Business Link.
· Grants for installation: £250k was available for grants over two years, which leveraged £0.92 million of funding. 42 grants were made.
In two years, RE4D has helped 200 SMEs, and 30 community clients, to develop over 120 installations. This resulted in £4.6 million energy savings for SMEs. The turnover of Devon’s renewables sector increased from £7m to £11m, and the project won Devon an award for the region’s “most proactive local authority”.
RE4D’s carbon saving (the direct saving from the installations themselves) is quite small – 1273 tonnes of CO2 per annum.
There was an independent evaluation of the project which concluded that it provided good value for money. Lessons learned include:
· The project was two years long but took six months to set up so effectively only had 18 months to deliver its aims. A three-year project would have been better.
· The capacity and skills of the renewable energy sector in Devon is limited, and it was imperative that RE4D worked on the supply side as well as the demand side.
· Community groups need a lot of help and support, and decision-making can be slow and cumbersome. Five days of advice was not enough for many of them.
· RE4D just offered telephone support to domestic enquirers. But this made it hard to know how effective it was, as there was no relationship developed.
· The holistic approach of mentor support plus grants was useful. It is hard for people to get through the installation process and the grants help to motivate.