Thanks to £1.5m in support from The National Lottery Community Fund, Repowering London is set to create the first Repowered Community in the London Borough of Newham. We are partnering with Community Energy Newham, the London Borough of Newham, Dark Matter Laboratories, London South Bank University and Glasgow Community Energy to make this happen.
What is a Repowered Community?
A Repowered Community is Repowering London’s clean energy neighbourhood model. Among the benefits this first, flagship programme will deliver are:
- Reduced energy costs for up to 750 households
- Retrofit support for 200 homes (making them less expensive to heat and healthier places to live)
- Locally generated green electricity that will supply 500 homes
- Community-owned heat generation assets for 50 homes, and
- Community benefits such as employment for local people.
What’s more, the model delivers a scalable structure for people-led change that brings together communities and Councils.
The Borough of Newham has just received an LGC Award in the Net Zero category, in recognition of its Just Transition plan. its strong climate leadership makes it a perfect partner for this pioneering project.
Why do we need a Repowered Community?
The UK energy system is not working. Some 13% of UK households are in fuel poverty, our houses are some of the worst-performing in Western Europe when it comes to energy-efficiency, and there is little evidence that current national government retrofit schemes work for our poorest households. Meanwhile, privately owned energy companies are extracting greater levels of income from our communities to generate ever-growing profits, fuelling increasing levels of inequality. At the same time, they are delivering a declining service to customers, reducing trust in the energy sector.
Newham is well aware of the effect of this system. It is the third-most deprived Local Authority in London, has London’s highest fuel poverty rate and is one of the London boroughs most exposed to the flood and overheating risks that come with climate change. Our project is directly aligned with the Borough’s Just Transition Plan, and recognises that a just transition to net zero – bringing with it a decentralised energy system – is an opportunity to address existing problems.
NLCF research has shown that genuinely democratic governance models for energy infrastructure will help share the benefits more fairly and build a more just transition. The Repowered Community offers a demonstrable model for locally owned energy with the scale and resilience required to tackle the Climate Emergency effectively.
Towards a practical toolkit
Our ultimate aim is to make the model accessible and replicable – so that every town and city in the UK will be able to lead the way to a sustainable future. That’s where our project partners come in.
Together we are developing a construction toolkit to allow every urban community in the UK to become a Repowered Community using our model. This will let them generate low carbon, affordable energy that is locally used and owned. So that it will reach the widest possible audience, the toolkit will be free to download from the Repowering London website, the websites of Community Energy England, Wales and Scotland, and from other partners.
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