November 7, 2012
Legal structures can matter
The success or failure of the renewable energy market will depend to a large extent on incentives from Government. If community owned renewables is really going to take off, it has long been argued that the incentive package needs to reflect the particular challenges faced by communities. That argument now appears to be won but as ever, the devil is in the detail. It looks like the legal form that most Scottish communities choose to adopt isn’t recognised by UK Government. Community Energy Scotland is on the case.
07/11/12
The Dept of Energy and Climate Change is changing the regulations and incentives for community owned renewables, principally through the proposed introduction of a community FIT (Feed in Tariff). The concern is that the UK Govt is going to exclude the main legal forms adopted by Scottish communities when developing renewable energy projects. In this letter to Michael Moore, MP, Sec of State for Scotland, Nicholas Gubbins CEO of Community Energy Scotland makes the case to include the legal structures more commonly used in Scotland : Companies limited by guarantee, SCIOs and CICs.