Renewable energy development, at scale and pace

More than two-thirds of local authorities have declared a “climate emergency”.

Many have set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, 20 years ahead of the government’s target. These commitments have been set against a backdrop of greatly reduced revenues from central government to fund public services locally. Investment in renewable energy projects offers local authorities a means both to meet climate change targets and generate commercial income to support service provision.

Councils already operate in a complex financial climate and therefore the rationale behind any renewable energy project needs to be supported by a robust and commercially viable business case. Subsidy-free development carries a higher revenue risk, which is a big challenge to local authorities who specifically need to understand and quantify complex price risks, especially around forecasts. Ultimately, the scale and pace of future local authority renewable energy deployment, and green recovery generally, will depend on the confidence of the expected return from a project’s business case. For business case certainty, and to model renewables accurately, best available projections of policy and forecasts are required. Local Partnerships has developed a collaborative relationship with Aurora Energy Research who are at the forefront of modelling renewable energy technologies in the UK. For example, Aurora contributed price data to the recently published Committee on Climate Change Report: Reducing UK emissions: 2020 Progress Report to Parliament.

To give local and combined authorities confidence in making data-driven investment in renewable energy projects, our agreement with Aurora provides clients access to an accurate data set to include in their final business case, at a discounted rate.

If you would like to view highlights of a recent masterclass webinar on local authority investment in renewables and the importance of price forecasts, hosted by Local Partnerships and Aurora, please email us for a copy.

The LGA will shortly publish a Good Practice Guide to Renewable Energy, authored by Local Partnerships.

Jo.Wall@localpartnerships.gov.uk
07770 702 386