Leicestershire CAN Demonstrator: Community Energy Pathways - Work Package 3

Leicestershire CAN (Collaborate to Accelerate Net Zero): Demonstrator has been awarded £2.5 million by Innovate UK to create an environment for well-planned, deliverable, impactful place-based net zero interventions in Leicestershire, replicable to other local authority (LA) areas.

Comprising 4 interconnected work packages, CAN-De will lay the foundations for successful delivery. This work package is concerned with the delivery of the Community Energy Pathway (CEP). The CEP work package will:

Assess the current state of community energy in Leicestershire and identify opportunities/key priority areas, to inform the development of community energy capacity.

Engage the relevant stakeholders in the county to gather support and interest for community energy.

Assess and work with interested parties and community groups, to share understanding about becoming or setting up a new community energy organization.

Identify potential for at least one community energy organisation in each of the districts of Leicestershire - assessing the levels of support, training and skills needed to enable them to thrive.

Support community energy across Leicestershire through the provision of tools and resources, to cover funding, finance models, legal and other appropriate areas to enable the organisations to deliver projects successfully.

Provide specialist training and support for the chosen new community energy organisations and to the existing community energy groups in Leicestershire. To include, share offers, energy advice, business models, legal and feasibility offers.

Work with the other work packages of the demonstrator to identify a pipeline of community energy projects and support undertaking feasibility studies to deliver against the Demonstrator's ambition of having 14 projects in discover, development or delivery by the end of the project.

Provide grants to new community energy organisations to support their set up.

Work towards embedding longevity and sustainable business models for community energy in Leicestershire to ensure they continue to success after the completion of the Demonstrator - engaging with the other work packages and also sharing guidance and lessons learned to other local authority areas, so they may be able to replicate the success seen in Leicestershire.

A soft market test was conducted in January 2024, to test the market for possible providers. On completion of the soft market test review, it was clear that there was only one provider who has the ability to be capable of delivering all of the Demonstrator work package 3 objectives. Therefore the decision was made to award the contract directly to this provider as there was absence of competition for technical reasons.