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February 13, 2026 In Community, Solar PV

The Local Power Plan is announced

Community energy, with local communities taking control of their own energy generation and sharing in the benefits of it, has always been close to our heart.

We built the very first community-funded solar project in the UK and have worked with other experts, councils, and community energy organisations ever since, to design and install rooftop mounted solar.

 

The Local Power Plan is published

The publication of the Government’s Local Power Plan this week, backed by £1 billion of funding, signals a historic investment in community energy in the UK. We welcome this positive, forward-looking commitment. As our Head of Solar, Ed Baughan says:

“The Local Power Plan is a really positive signal for the market. For years, community and locally-owned solar projects have had huge potential, but limited access to patient capital and structured support. If this funding is delivered well, it could unlock a new pipeline of rooftop and ground-mounted schemes that directly benefit local people and businesses”.

 

What will the Plan do? Key highlights 

  • The Local Power Plan is looking to support over 1,000 local and community energy generation projects, boosting shared community ownership in the growth of clean energy.
  • These projects will be a mixture of locations, size, and technologies.
  • Great British Energy has also stated it will work collaboratively with partners to provide financial investment, deliver capacity building and business support, and to remove project barriers. They’ll provide grants for feasibility and development of projects, loans for construction and community shared ownership, and targeted investment in specific local projects.
  • A Partnership Fund will also support collaboration between local authorities and community energy.

 

Plan details

More details of the funding and support available will be published in the GBE Product Portfolio in the Autumn and all the details currently available are here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-power-plan

 

A low-carbon future for all?

Great British Energy says their vision is “that by 2030, every community in the UK will have the opportunity to benefit from, and own, a local energy project”. Delivering clean energy and social value for communities across the UK is in our DNA, and this certainly aligns with our vision of a democratic, low carbon, all-electric future for all.

We look forward to the Autumn when more of the details are shared.

July 17, 2025 In Community

Community Energy Catch Up with NLCE

How much did you discover about Community Energy during July’s Community Energy Fortnight?

As pioneers of Community Energy from the beginning, our Joju Solar team always approaches this two-week celebration with huge enthusiasm. This year, we’ve been catching up Ruby Berridge from North Lincolnshire Community Energy (NLCE) to discover more about what NLCE has been getting up to during the event.

Take a listen to the conversation between Ruby and Jenna, to discover more about what community energy means to the people of North Lincolnshire and how communities are responding to it across the county.

We’re proud to install solar on a wide variety of community buildings across North Lincolnshire, and we hope you enjoy finding out more in this conversation.

 

 

November 30, 2021 In Community, News and Events, Solar PV

An iconic and award-winning install

Installing solar PV on Salisbury Cathedral was always iconic… and now it’s award-winning too!

We’ve just won the Alan Clark Award for Local/Community Energy at the Solar and Storage Live Awards, 2021 – and it’s an honour to receive it.

Community energy is something we’ve championed from the very beginning. It’s at the heart of who we are. We built the first community share-funded solar installation back in 2008, and the schemes are a fantastic way of getting renewable energy projects built at scale, within a local area, with local shareholders benefitting from the income generated.

Solar on Salisbury Cathedral

In the case of Salisbury Cathedral, a new group, Salisbury Community Energy, approached the Cathedral and we became involved via the Schools Energy Coop. We came up with a design that met the ecclesiastic planning committee’s stringent requirements and once approved, it was full steam ahead with the install.

You can read about the project in more detail here and as the Bishop of Salisbury put it,

“With clear purpose and helpful partnerships even iconic buildings can make a difference towards sustainability.”

Being recognised for our part in this historic project, alongside Salisbury Community Energy, certainly means a lot to us.

FIND OUT MORE

Mike Smyth, Energy4Al, Wey VAlley Solar, Schools Energy Coop, 100 solar installations
February 22, 2021 In Community, Solar

A special solar centenary

Here at Joju Solar, one of the things we believe in is the power of community energy, and we’ve worked closely with Mike Smyth for many years to install some pioneering community energy projects for schools (and other similar buildings) across the country.

 

Mike is the former Chair of Friends of the Earth Trust and the current Chair at Energy 4 All, The Schools Energy Co-operative and Wey Valley Solar Schools Energy Co-operative, and he’s always been passionate about environmental matters.

 

Last year, we completed our 100th project with Mike, and it was a special one… installing solar panels on the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral. We couldn’t let this pass without catching up with him to talk about the landmark, Mike’s background and his hopes for community energy in the future.

 

So, grab yourself a cuppa, take ten minutes and listen to Mike’s story and his feelings about reaching 100… installs, of course!

 

 

Find Out More

Egni Coop, Awel Amen Tawe, Newport, solar, schools
March 19, 2020 In Community, Public Sector, Schools, Solar

How to install solar in schools

We’re currently building a 2MW community energy scheme with a Welsh community energy group called Awel Amen Tawe.  Their Egni Coop is working with Newport Council to install solar on their schools and other public buildings such as the velodrome.  Dan McCallum from Egni Coop, has written this rather excellent blog piece, looking at the finer details of the project panning and installation process.

READ MORE

Oxford, Power Station, Project LEO, local grid, local energy
May 10, 2019 In Batteries, Community, Featured, Solar

A Smart Local Energy System for Oxfordshire

Back in the 1890’s a power station in central Oxford powered a local grid that ran the city.  As demand for electrical power grew, many small local networks like this across the country were developed.  However, by 1925, such an approach was seen as inefficient and fragmented, and major review was conducted by Lord Weir.  The British Government created the Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926, which recommended that a “national gridiron” supply system be created. This was the formation of the National Grid as we know it, a back bone of high-voltage transmission lines feeding lower voltage local distribution networks.  One outcome of this, however, was that it supported a model of large centralised electricity generation; many GW of coal, gas and nuclear plants supplying the bulk of our power.

Now, in 2019, the challenges are very different.  With the need for rapid decarbonisation of electricity to mitigate climate change, not to mention the fact that renewables are now cost-competitive with traditional generation, we now have many smaller generators connected at the bottom of the electricity grid.

Which poses the question: is the old localised energy grid model a more appropriate way of managing our electricity system in the 21st Century?  Has the wheel turned full circle?

This is what a major new project, Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire), is looking to find out.

Project LEO, logo

Project LEO

Project LEO is a £13.8m project over 3 years, run by a consortium of Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks, Open Utility (Piclo), EDF Energy R&D, Nuvvé, Low Carbon Hub, University of Oxford, Oxford City Council, and Oxfordshire County Council.  The aim of the project, as the name would suggest, is to develop a local electricity market for Oxfordshire, that supplies its own needs, ensures reliable grid operation, and rewards generators a storage for the energy and flexibility they provide.

Why is this project being developed in Oxfordshire?  Currently the grid in Oxfordshire is constrained, meaning it’s hard to connect more renewable energy projects to the grid; the grid is essentially full.  There are two potential ways to solve this:

  • upgrade all the wires and substations so they can take more power. However, the expense of this could be vast.
  • Develop a smart local grid, where storage and flexible demand soak up excess renewably generated power, to allow more renewable generation to be connected without massive upgrades of infrastructure

Put another way, lets imagine a new massive solar farm was connected to the grid.  In summer the excess power would blow up the existing substations – no-one wants that!  So the first option would be to build a new substation at considerable cost.  The second option would be to find nearby users to take that excess power, which is likely to be considerably cheaper.

Local Energy Marketplace

To facilitate this, Project LEO is developing a local energy marketplace, to control and manage the operation of the ‘assets’ in a smart local energy system.  These assets might include hydro generation on the Thames which could be ramped up and down, or large heating systems such as the Bodleian book depository, which could be used flexibly according to available renewable power. It could also include smaller solar PV systems, batteries and smart EV charging.

Joju Solar to play a part

And this is where Joju Solar comes in!  We’re going to be working with our long-term community energy partner the Low Carbon Hub to deliver solar and storage projects that integrate with the Project LEO local energy marketplace.  Lots of innovation will be required.  For example, currently batteries charge from solar, and discharge to meet demand within the home.  In future, batteries will still charge from solar, but might discharge when Oxfordshire needs it, rather than when your home needs it. This should reduce costs for everyone, and allow more renewables to be connected to the grid.  However, it won’t be easy; devices will need the ability to ‘talk’ to the grid for them to be able to respond to the signals from the local market.

It’s a very exciting step for us – to go beyond simply installing generation and storage in people’s homes and businesses, and actually help create a local smart electricity grid.  We can’t wait to get started.

Further Reading