Beyond Grants: Funding with Community-Owned Renewables

Event Information 

Join us for an evening exploring the many benefits that community-owned renewables can bring to local communities; from funding nature action and other local priorities, reducing energy costs, to empowering communities to take meaningful local climate action. With dinner at hand, we will hear about what community-owned renewables are, how they work and explore examples of how community groups and organisations have used them to deliver benefits.

We will hear from a diverse range of people:

• Juliet Dunstone (Community Energy Scotland):  An introduction to community-owned renewables and examples of how they have been used across Scotland to benefit communities.
• Lee Dolby & Neil Barnes (Linlithgow Community Development Trust): A deep dive into Linlithgow Community Development Trust’s experience with Linlith-Go-Solar, sharing why, how, and what it took to launch this community-owned renewable project.
• David Cairns (CATCH): Bringing it locally, sharing early-stage ideas and thinking for Kinross on this.

The session will finish with plenty of time for questions and discussion. The event is free, and a delicious dinner will be provided to enjoy either before or after the conversations.

Interested in Linlith-Go-Solar? Watch a taster video below:

About the Organisations & Speakers

Community Energy Scotland 

Community Energy Scotland is a member-led, independent organisation providing practical & technical support for community project development. We work in partnership with community groups and others who share our values, building their understanding and capacity to create more democratic, sustainable and low carbon solutions.

Linlithgow Community Development Trust

Linlithgow Community Development Trust is a community organisation formed by residents of the Linlithgow ward to deliver change which will benefit the community. With their Linltigho-Solar-Project, launched in 2018, the trust had two objectives (1) to generate an income stream that would allow them to undertake other community activities. (2) to assist local sports facilities were struggling with their energy bills and the need to move towards Net Zero. Lee Dolby is the Chief Executive Officer and Neil Barnes was a trustee at the time of the project and is now a very active volunteer . 

CATCH

CATCH is a local community initiative in Kinross that have been exploring the opportunity of creating a District Heating Network through community-owned mechanisms. David Cairns spearheads the initiative. 

Practical Information 

• Dinner: Provided by Feast Catering. Please let us know dietary requirements when booking your ticket. Inform us of any other accessibility needs as well.
• Parking: Free parking is available on-site.
• Timings: Doors open at 6.00 pm. Presentations will begin at 6.15 pm and finish with questions and discussion at 7.30 pm. You are welcome to stay to grab some dinner if you didn't manage to do so before presentations.