As part of the Community Energy Capacity Building Study, this Community Energy Action Plan examines how Leicester City Council can support the region’s active community energy sector as part of its wider Net Zero ambitions.
Resource
The Midlands Net Zero Hub (MNZH) commissioned a Community Energy Capacity Building Study across six local authority areas: Birmingham, Herefordshire, Leicester, North Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Worcestershire. Delivered by Energy Saving Trust in partnership with Marches Energy Advice, the study engaged local authorities and community energy stakeholders through facilitated workshops to identify challenges, opportunities, and practical actions that can accelerate community-led energy delivery across the Midlands.
The study produced Community Energy Action Plans for each region, a summary report of the community energy capacity in the Midlands, and an overall guide to community energy based on the findings from the study and its workshops.
Community Energy Action Plan: Leicester City Council
This action plan examines how Leicester City Council can support community energy as part of its wider Net Zero ambitions. Leicester has an active community energy sector, led primarily by Green Fox and supported by emerging organisations such as Surja, with activity focused on solar generation, energy advice, and community engagement. The Council’s climate and carbon reduction strategies provide a supportive framework by promoting distributed renewable energy, building retrofit, and local participation. While there is strong local expertise and a pipeline of potential projects, many remain at the feasibility stage, highlighting the need for clearer governance, coordination, and delivery mechanisms.
Challenges, opportunities, and actions
Community energy development in Leicester is constrained by uncertainty around long-term asset access, complex procurement processes, limited officer capacity, and a lack of a formal community energy framework. Financial barriers also persist, including difficulties securing development funding and challenges created by mismatches between solar generation and building energy demand, particularly in schools and community facilities. Heritage restrictions further reduce the number of suitable sites.
The report identifies strong opportunities to expand community energy through schools, faith buildings, community assets, and housing retrofit programmes. Emerging local energy supply models, shared ownership approaches, and battery storage could improve project viability, while Leicester’s existing district heating infrastructure creates longer-term opportunities for heat network development. Analysis suggests around 5.5 MW of rooftop solar capacity could be delivered relatively quickly, with substantially greater long-term potential.
Recommended actions include establishing a Leicester Community Energy Network, developing pilot projects, creating standard templates and referral pathways, building council and community capacity, integrating community energy into local strategies, supporting shared ownership models, and developing a long-term framework to enable large-scale deployment across the city.
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