The Energy Savings Trust delivers the Scottish Government's
Community and Renewable Energy Scheme. The Scottish
Government wishes to maximise local ownership of renewable energy
generation projects and to increase the benefits for communities
that these projects can provide.
Financial support provided by the CARES scheme consists
of:
1) Pre-Planning Loan
The Pre-Planning Loan provides support to community
applicants taking forward plans for renewable energy generation
schemes on land they own or could lease from a land
owner.
The main focus of the funds is to reduce the barriers to
community or local rural business entrepreneurs who want to test
and develop additional renewable energy generation projects.
Applicants can be community groups or rural businesses or joint
ventures based in Scotland and can borrow up to 95%
of pre-planning costs such as Environmental Impact
Assessments and technical feasibility studies. The maximum
loan will be £150k per applicant.
These schemes are administered by the Energy Savings Trust. For
full details please see the EST website,
click here to access.
2) Energy Challenge Fund
This funding stream is currently closed, information on any
further funding rounds will be posted here in due course.