As part of the Community Energy Capacity Building Study, this Community Energy Action Plan sets out how Worcestershire County Council can support community energy to contribute to Net Zero, energy resilience, and local economic development.
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: Worcestershire County Council
This action plan sets out how Worcestershire County Council can support community energy to contribute to Net Zero, energy resilience, and local economic development. Worcestershire has an active, albeit relatively small, community energy sector, with organisations including Malvern Community Energy Co-op, Evesham Vale Energy Renewables (EVER), Transition Bewdley, and Crowle Community Energy delivering or developing solar, wind, and heat network projects. The county’s policy framework increasingly supports local energy solutions, while emerging national funding programmes provide new opportunities for growth. Although community energy activity remains concentrated in a small number of locations, there is a growing pipeline of projects and considerable potential for future expansion.
Challenges, opportunities, and actions
Community energy development in Worcestershire faces several barriers, including grid capacity constraints, project viability challenges, limited volunteer capacity, skills shortages, planning complexity, and fragmented delivery. Many projects struggle to move beyond feasibility because of inadequate capital funding, low export revenues, and uncertainty surrounding future market and regulatory arrangements. Volunteer-led organisations also face sustainability and succession challenges.
The report identifies opportunities to improve coordination and accelerate delivery through a county-wide community energy network, stronger partnership working, and a more strategic project pipeline. There is significant potential to expand rooftop solar, local energy systems, and community-owned renewable generation, alongside longer-term opportunities in heat networks, battery storage, and hydropower. Conservative estimates suggest around 2.85 MW of rooftop solar potential and approximately 33 MW of longer-term renewable energy capacity.
Recommended actions include identifying priority projects, strengthening relationships with network operators, establishing a Worcestershire Community Energy Network, supporting community energy on public estates and social housing, improving access to funding, building skills and organisational capacity, embedding community energy within energy and planning strategies, and encouraging shared ownership and local benefit models in future developments.
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