Community energy storage and supply: feasibility study, analysis and specification

Sustaining Dunbar aims to bring people together to plan and start creating a low-carbon, sustainable and resilient community. Its aspirations include community involvement with the generation, storage and distribution of energy, as well as support for the dramatic reduction in energy demand. Sustaining Dunbar has formed a consortium with Community Energy Scotland to investigate innovative approaches to local energy matters.

The Dunbar Local Energy Innovation Consortium aims to use local, primarily constrained, renewable energy production to store energy and then supply it to householders and perhaps businesses too, in order to displace energy from fossil fuel sources, in the main used for local space heating.

The Consortium is using the Innovation and Infrastructure Fund, which supports the investigation of novel approaches to network and other problems that would otherwise hamper community project development, to fund a storage feasibility study.

The Dunbar Local Energy Innovation Consortium is seeking a consultant who can provide expertise, knowledge and resources not otherwise available in the consortium. The Consortium is thus seeking expressions of interest for the provision of a feasibility study, preliminary design and specification work.

The consultant will provide technical advice and assistance to help the group to utilise their local energy resource, with the aim of supporting the Scottish Government’s renewables target, options for creating income for the local community and not least increasing employment opportunities in and around Dunbar.

For further information about the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) visit Local Energy Scotland, which has information about resources available for rural businesses and communities. The Scottish Government has a target of 500MW of renewable energy to be locally or community owned by 2020 and currently has its Draft Community Energy Policy out for consultation.

Interested parties should contact Philip Revell in the first instance: philip AT sustainingdunbar.org