Community and locally owned energy in Scotland: 2023 report

Community and locally owned renewable energy places communities at the heart of the energy transition. This supports Scotland’s journey to net zero while also ensuring communities benefit from local renewable energy resources.

By transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy, we can reduce our carbon emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting community and local ownership of energy. It remains focused on its target of 2GW (2,000MW) of community and locally owned energy in Scotland by 2030.

In 2011 the Scottish Government asked us to produce a database of all community and locally owned renewable energy installations in Scotland. This database is used to monitor and report annually on progress towards the Scottish Government’s target.

This report presents the headline figures as of 31 December 2023 for community and locally owned renewable energy in Scotland and reviews the progress made towards the target. It then goes on to explore this progress by ownership category, technology and local authority to provide a broader picture of the sector in Scotland.

This year we’ve prepared an adjoining methodology document to the main report.

If you have any questions or comments about the Community and Locally Owned renewable energy database, or this report and the adjoining methodology document, please email RenewableReporting@est.org.uk

• There were 27,900 community and locally owned renewable energy installations at the end of December 2023, with a capacity of 1,028 MW. These installations could produce an estimated 1,862GWh of renewable energy annually.
• The Scottish Government has progressed 51% towards its 2030 target of having 2GW (2,000MW) of operational renewable energy capacity in community and local ownership.
• At the end of December 2023, there was an estimated 11MWh of operational energy storage capacity in community and local ownership in Scotland from 1,130 installations. A further 2MWh was in development from 150 installations.