Community and locally owned energy in Scotland: 2021 report

Background

Energy Saving Trust was asked in 2011 by the Scottish Government to produce a database of all community and locally owned renewable energy installations in Scotland and to produce a short report on the information it contained. The objective of this work was to monitor progress towards the target set by the Scottish Government of having 0.5 GW of operational renewable energy capacity in community or local ownership by 2020. 

This target was exceeded in 2015 and subsequently the Scottish Government doubled the target to 1 GW of operational community and locally owned renewable energy capacity by 2020 and set a further target of 2 GW by 2030.

As per the 2020 community and locally owned energy report, the Scottish Government progressed 85% towards their 1 GW 2020 target by the 31 December 2020 deadline. The reporting series is now focussed on tracking progress towards the 2 GW target with a deadline set for 31 December 2030.

This database has been updated annually since 2011 and includes, as far as possible, all installations known to be operating, under construction, or in earlier stages of development as of 31 December 2021.

In this report, and as per previous reports of the series, the figures presented on the accumulative changes in community and locally owned renewable energy capacity are based on the differences between this year’s analysis and the figures which were reported last year.  For any questions or comments relating to the Community and Locally Owned renewable energy database, or accompanying analysis and report, please contact RenewableReporting@est.org.uk.

Key findings from the Executive Summary

The findings from this work are that at the end of December 2021:

• An estimated 896 MW of community and locally owned renewable energy capacity was operational in Scotland at the end of December 2021.
• This is an increase of 44 MW (5%) from the 853 MW which was previously reported to be in operation at the end of December 2020.
• The Scottish Government has therefore progressed 45% towards their 2030 target of having 2 GW of operational renewable energy capacity in community and local ownership.
• The reported operating capacity comes from 29,000 installations.
• This is an increase of 3,170 (12%) in comparison to the previously reported 25,830 for 2020.
• There is a further 1,328 MW of capacity in various stages of development, 1,002 MW of which is currently under discussion for shared ownership between renewable energy developers and community or local organisations, or between multiple community and local owners.