Host it, or own it?
By Stuart Spiers | 2-9-26
For years, one of the biggest conversations surrounding renewable energy development has been about communities.
How do we bring people with us? What should communities receive in return for hosting major energy infrastructure? How do we make sure the benefits of the energy transition aren’t only felt hundreds of miles away from the places where that infrastructure is actually built?
But there’s another question beginning to emerge.
What if communities didn’t just host renewable energy projects? What if they had a stake in them too? It’s an idea already being explored across the UK and one that could change the relationship between renewable energy infrastructure and the people living alongside it.
From hosting energy to owning it
Scotland has been developing this idea for some time through its Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, better known as CARES.
The scheme supports communities looking to develop renewable energy projects of their own, as well as those exploring shared ownership opportunities with commercial renewable developments.
The Scottish Government has committed £15 million to community energy in 2026/27, with CARES forming an important part of its ambition to significantly increase community-owned energy generation.
That can take many different forms. A community might develop its own renewable project, invest alongside a commercial developer or explore ways of taking a financial stake in infrastructure being developed locally.
And that’s where things become particularly interesting.
Because the conversation is no longer simply about compensating a community for having renewable infrastructure nearby. It’s about giving people the opportunity to participate in the energy transition happening around them.
Does ownership change the conversation?
We’ve recently written about the growing discussion around community benefits from large renewable developments.
It’s an important one. If communities are going to live alongside nationally significant infrastructure for decades, it’s reasonable to ask how some of the economic benefits of that development can remain locally.
But ownership introduces a different relationship altogether.
There is a significant psychological difference between something being built near you and something being built with you.
That doesn’t mean shared ownership suddenly removes every concern surrounding a renewable development. Communities will still have perfectly legitimate questions about land use, landscape, biodiversity, construction, infrastructure and the cumulative impact of development.
Nor will community ownership be practical or appropriate for every project.
But giving local people the opportunity to become participants rather than spectators has the potential to change the nature of the relationship.
The energy transition is becoming increasingly local
There is a tendency to talk about the UK’s transition to renewable energy in enormous numbers: gigawatts of generation, billions of pounds of investment and national targets stretching decades into the future. But ultimately, all that infrastructure has to exist somewhere.
Solar farms occupy real fields. Wind turbines sit within real landscapes. Battery storage facilities connect into real communities. New substations, cables and grid infrastructure have physical footprints.
The national energy transition therefore becomes very local, very quickly.
That’s why community engagement, community benefits and increasingly community participation matter.
If we’re going to ask communities to play host to the infrastructure required for Britain’s future energy system, there is an opportunity to think creatively about how those communities can become part of the story.
More than a financial return
Community energy isn’t solely about generating an investment return either.
Locally owned or shared renewable projects can potentially create revenue that is reinvested into community priorities, from energy efficiency and tackling fuel poverty to local facilities, skills and environmental projects.
They can also give communities greater understanding of how energy is generated and used locally.
That connection may become increasingly important as Britain’s energy system changes.
We’re moving from an energy system dominated by relatively few large power stations towards one containing an enormous number of distributed assets: solar, wind, batteries, EV chargers, heat pumps and other technologies operating across the country.
Communities aren’t simply going to be living alongside the future energy system.
Increasingly, they’ll be living within it.
Host it. Or own it?
At SGU, we spend a lot of time talking about responsible solar development and the wider role renewable projects can play in the places where they’re built.
Community ownership won’t replace good development, good engagement or meaningful community benefits. Nor should it be treated as a magic answer to legitimate concerns about new infrastructure.
But it adds another interesting possibility to the conversation.
Perhaps the future relationship between renewable developers and communities doesn’t always have to be developer on one side and community on the other.
Perhaps sometimes there can be a seat at the same table.
As Britain builds considerably more renewable energy infrastructure over the coming years, we think that’s an idea worth exploring.
Because the question might not always be whether a community is prepared to host renewable energy.
It might be whether they’d like to own part of it too.
Because we care.
