Community Renewables: Balancing Optimism with Reality

The development of community renewables in Scotland is interwoven in a range of post-devolution Scottish policies relating to community ownership of natural resources and community empowerment, and facilitated and hindered to varying degrees by a dynamic and uncertain energy policy landscape at UK and EU levels. While community energy production represents only about 4% of Scottish onshore renewable generation, it can provide highly important income streams for often remote communities. In this chapter, we explore the wider regulatory and policy context, the roots of community energy policy, the diversity of practice, the implications of increased devolution on community energy policy, the actual and potential benefits arising from community energy and the obstacles to increasing its share of the renewable energy market in Scotland.