CORE

Putting renewable energy into community hands.

CORE was developed in 2017 in response to the closure of the Feed-in Tariff regime, which had supported community energy groups to develop local renewable projects. Its removal meant that many planned or proposed schemes were rendered un-investable and stalled community schemes, thereby depriving local communities of a potential income stream and the ability to own and run their own energy projects.

CORE looked to address this through the establishment of a financial vehicle able to acquire a portfolio of existing solar farms, mostly from private sector ownership, with the aim of optimising them, refinancing and transferring them into community ownership. Power to Change made a social investment of over £8m into CORE that has been directly invested into seven solar farms based in England, comprising 34MW of renewable electrical capacity.

Alongside our investment into CORE, Power to Change has provided over £2m of grants and support to CORE and the four community businesses in England taking ownership of the seven solar farms, as well as supporting innovative post-subsidy business models for community energy businesses through the Next Generation programme.

Our investment into this groundbreaking partnership with Big Society Capital and Finance Earth supported the development of a community-owned solar energy sector in England. Putting renewable energy into community hands helps to make places better for people to live and work, whilst accelerating responses to the climate emergency and zero carbon transition.