Our Projects
Solar Power Allotments
The Power Allotments Devon project was established to inspire and enable communities across Devon to identify a five-acre site within their local area for a biodiverse, community-owned renewable energy project. Over a twelve-month period, concluding in April 2023, individuals and groups with a strong commitment to climate action came together to explore practical opportunities for local power generation. Using the mapping tools, resources, and guidance provided by the project, participants proposed a range of potential sites and generation concepts.
In total, 73 sites were submitted and assessed against a comprehensive set of criteria, including site orientation, access, grid connectivity, and environmental and heritage considerations. The assessment process was strengthened through engagement with key stakeholders, who provided technical insight and advice. This rigorous evaluation resulted in a shortlist of 15 sites for on-site visits, from which seven were identified as high-priority development opportunities.
The project demonstrated clearly that local communities possess both the motivation and the capability to identify viable renewable energy sites. However, it also highlighted the structural challenges that currently limit the delivery of community-owned energy projects at this scale. Under prevailing market conditions, high installation and financing costs significantly exceed projected long-term revenues from power sales, rendering traditional business models unviable. In addition, constrained grid capacity in the region, coupled with costly export limitations, lengthy connection timelines, and expensive infrastructure upgrades, presents further barriers to progress.
Despite these challenges, the findings point to clear opportunities for innovation and reform. Unlocking the potential of community energy will require the development of alternative routes to market, potentially supported by targeted policy and legislative changes, new approaches by network operators, and innovation in local supply arrangements, virtual power sales, or corporate partnerships.
With the right support framework in place, community energy can play a vital role in accelerating the transition to net zero while delivering local economic, environmental, and social benefits. Strengthening support mechanisms will be key to enabling these projects to move from concept to construction and into long-term community ownership.
Clay Energy Works - Wind Turbines
Devon Energy Collective CIC conducted a feasibility assessment to determine the viability of developing a community owned wind farm, up to 65MW in size, in and around the worked mining landscape of Lee Moor to the south of Dartmoor National Park. It included constraints mapping, a planning and policy assessment, technical analysis of the grid, preliminary noise assessments, wind resource mapping and a transport access study. It also ran an economic analysis of a wind project to understand what the surplus income for community benefit might look like depending on the scale of the project. With the help of local energy group South Dartmoor Community Energy, the communities living in the nearby three parishes of Sparkwell, Shaugh Prior and Cornwood were engaged with the concept of a wind farm via a series of online events. The findings showed that a community owned wind farm at the Clayworks could be both technically and financially viable. If built, a wind farm at the Clayworks would be a flagship project for community renewable energy, generating a substantial surplus income that could have a transformative impact on the local and Devon-wide communities by providing finance and leverage to fund the deep green retrofit of the 2,600 houses in the the surrounding parishes.