Powering community energy through more effective segmentation practice

Community energy is a key part of the UK Government's plan for decarbonising the energy sector, yet public engagement with the sustainability agenda remains low. This paper explores the importance of community energy groups in this process, drawing on a study examining how to increase local engagement with energy projects. The findings reveal striking diversity in what constitutes a community, the range of community energy projects being undertaken, the journeys communities are taking towards sustainability and the factors that shape those journeys. This diversity has implications for whether and how communities become engaged in energy projects. The findings also suggest that there is potential to use commercial approaches to achieve better targeting of carbon-reduction initiatives.