The Community Energy State of the Sector research provides the most comprehensive and inclusive review of community energy in the UK, in collaboration with Community Energy Wales and Community Energy Scotland. Having access to data on the sector is vital for community energy organisations, stakeholders and policy makers to understand and communicate about the sector, encourage investment and bring about supportive policies. The research has been quoted across a range of outlets and is consistently used by politicians, civil servants, researchers, community energy enterprises and many other key stakeholders.
Thank you to all organisations who provided data for this year's State of the Sector research.
We are grateful for all the data provided and the time taken to gather and submit it.
State of the Sector 2024 is generously sponsored by SP Energy Networks. This support is vital for enabling us to conduct the research.
Next steps
Our partners Community Energy Scotland are processing all the data submitted this year and adding stats from desk research so we can get as comprehensive picture of the community energy sector as possible. They will then analyse all the numbers to produce a wide range of statistics about community energy sector. We plan to publish our first high level overview of the sector by numbers during Community Energy Forntight, 1-14 July.
Data Portal
This year we launched a new portal for providing community energy data. The window for data to be included in this year's statistics has now closed, but the portal will remain open all year for organisations to review and edit their data and add new sites of community energy activity - we will be regularly taking this sites data and updating our national map through the year after we relaunch it.
Community energy organisations can join and access the portal all year round. The first user from a community energy organisation will need to email sots@communityenergyengland.org and we will grant access.
Once you have access, users can add other people associated with their organisation by inviting them via their email address – click on your organisation, then “Members”, then “+ Invite Members”.
Click here to access the new data portal
Here are the key things community energy organisation can do in the portal:
- View and edit your organisation's details
- View and edit your data in the live survey
- View, edit, and add sites of community energy activity
In the main survey, please make sure you click "Save" at the bottom every time you add/edit more data. You can edit as many times as you like and the data does not disappear after you click Save.
Main survey
We removed some questions from the survey that were no longer relevant or useful. We also added some new questions; we know the survey is long, but the sector is getting increasingly varied and complex and we have more and more uses for the data for advocating on behalf of the sector and helping us design support mechanisms for the sector. We ask organisations to provide as much information as possible.
Users can view previous data for their organisation in the portal and download in PDF or CSV spreadsheet - 2021 data is shown in the survey response dated 05.01.2024, which is when we uploaded previous data into the new portal.
In the live survey, answers to undated questions, e.g. “how many employees does your organisation have?” are pre-filled with previous data so users can view and update. All the questions in the live survey are available to browse so users can gather information from across their organisation.
Sites of community energy
We have also created an area in the portal for sites of community energy. Mostly these will be sites of renewable energy generation, e.g. a hydro facility or a building with solar on the roof, but could also include locations of energy advice cafes and locations from which retrofit services are provided. All site data from previous SOTS and our national map has been pre-loaded into an organisation’s account. When adding or editing a site, users can easily pinpoint the exact location of a site on a map.
Sites are important because our national map with this data proved extremely popular and useful to organisations within and outside the sector, so we want to improve the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the map’s data.
The site data was collated from a range of sources so there is some inaccuracy and duplication - we need your help to make the data as accurate and comprehansive as possible. If any of your sites need to be deleted, please email sots@communityenergyengland.org and we will do this for you.
Thank you to our members and other providers of data for your ongoing support, and to SP Energy Networks for sponsoring State of the Sector 2024.
State of the Sector 2022
The 2022 report focuses on progress made in 2021, describes how and why the sector is changing, highlights its potential, and provides a strong evidence base to encourage policy-makers and other stakeholders to create a more supportive policy landscape for community energy at local, regional and national level.
Thank you to everyone who took part in this important sector-wide project