Guidance

Rural Community Energy Fund (closed)

A funding scheme to support rural communities across England wanting to set up renewable energy projects in their area.

From:
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published
31 May 2019
Last updated
2 September 2019 — See all updates

This guidance was withdrawn on

The Rural Community Energy Fund is now closed.

All grant funding has been allocated. Existing applicants are not affected and all successful grant applications will be honoured. They will be supported by the local Net Zero Hubs.

The Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) is a £10 million programme which supports rural communities in England to develop renewable energy projects, which provide economic and social benefits to the community.

Funding

RCEF provides support to rural communities in 2 stages:

  • stage 1: grants of up to £40,000 for a feasibility study for a renewable energy project
  • stage 2: grants of up to £100,000 for business development and planning of feasible schemes

How to apply

The RCEF is closed to new applicants. 

How it works

RCEF is being run by 5 regional Net Zero Hubs.

Net Zero Hubs

The hubs are split by Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) regions. Use the following list to see which hubs cover your LEP region.

North East Yorkshire and Humber

  • Tees Valley
  • North East
  • Leeds City Region
  • Humber
  • Sheffield City Region
  • York, North Yorkshire and East Riding

North West

  • Cumbria
  • Greater Manchester
  • Liverpool City Region
  • Cheshire and Warrington
  • Lancashire

Midlands

  • Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
  • Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire
  • The Marches
  • Worcestershire
  • Leicester and Leicestershire
  • Black Country
  • Coventry and Warwickshire
  • Greater Birmingham and Solihull
  • Greater Lincolnshire

South West

  • Swindon and Wiltshire
  • West of England
  • Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
  • Heart of the South West
  • Dorset
  • GFirst (Gloucestershire)
  • Solent

South East

  • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
  • New Anglia
  • Hertfordshire
  • Buckinghamshire Thames Valley
  • Oxfordshire
  • SEMLEP (South East Midlands)
  • Coast to Capital
  • South East
  • Enterprise M3
  • Thames Valley Berkshire
  • London

If you have any doubts over which LEP area you are in, see this map of the LEP Network.

Updates to this page

Published 31 May 2019
Last updated 2 September 2019 + show all updates

  1. North West email address changed.

  2. First published.

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