A community-led solution addressing the climate emergency

We’ve been developing the Glasgow Community Energy project over the last four years as a community-led solution addressing the climate emergency. Inspired by the successful Edinburgh Community Solar Co-operative, launched in 2015, Glasgow Community Energy is a new community-owned renewable energy co-operative for the city of Glasgow. Over the next few months, we plan to install solar panels on the roofs of up to nine large public/private buildings across the city and to launch a ‘Community Share Offer’ so that people all over Glasgow can get involved.

In April 2019, Scotland’s First Minister declared a ‘climate emergency’, recognising the urgent need to decarbonise our economy in order to fight climate change. On 16 May 2019, Glasgow City Council also voted to declare a ‘climate emergency’, and on 26 September 2019 the Council’s City Administration Committee approved the Recommendations of its Climate Emergency Working Group, which brought forward the city’s target for carbon neutrality from 2037 to 2030. Recommendation 4.5 explicitly supports the Glasgow Community Energy project, stating that:

Local communities should be able to invest in low carbon solutions through mechanisms such as co-operative business models. There is a good opportunity to develop partnerships which will enable residents to support renewable energy in the city and to get local benefit from these resources. We recommend that the Council’s business support and planning services are made available to support community investment in renewable energy, including the Glasgow Community Energy Co-operative.

Glasgow Community Energy has a key role to play in our city’s efforts to urgently decarbonise. Once up and running, we aim to generate up to 320,000kWh/year of clean, green energy for Glasgow saving us 82 tonnes of carbon every year. But because we are a co-operative, we are also helping fulfil the Council’s aim to ‘devolve power to residents’. Our project is founded on the seven co-operative principles, which will ensure it remains an open and inclusive initiative that anyone can join and get involved.

Please do join our newsletter so that you can be the first to hear when our ‘Community Share Offer’ is launched and to find out about other exciting ways to get involved.

Ellie Harrison
Chair, Glasgow Community Energy