Power to the people! How the clean energy transition benefits communities

The North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub was a key regional partner at the recent Clean Energy UK event in Newcastle. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Local Net Zero Hubs – of which there are five in England  – the North East Hub alone: 

• Supports 128 energy-generating projects across 25 local authorities, delivering a projected 194MW of new energy. 

• Delivers energy efficiency improvements in almost 10,000 homes – making them healthier and more comfortable to live in, and cheaper to power and heat. 

• Helps over 100 communities to generate clean power where it is needed – and which local people benefit from.   

The Local Net Zero Hubs are funded by government to energise (pun intended) the development and delivery of commercially investable clean power projects across local authorities and are run as local partnerships.  

The Hubs’ mission is assisting the new publicly owned energy company GB Energy with identifying and developing the projects which will deliver the government’s ambition of a completely clean energy electricity system by 2030 and supporting implementation of the forthcoming Warm Homes plan. 

They also have a vital role to play in meeting local and national economic ambitions.  

As we heard at Clean Energy UK, every one of the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub’s Combined Authority partners has clean energy at the heart of their own growth plans.  

The North knows very well that the greatest opportunities to revitalise our economy and our communities lie in advanced manufacturing, offshore wind, small modular nuclear reactors, hydrogen, carbon capture and sustainable aviation fuel.  

As the government’s recently published Clean Jobs Plan pointed out, this transition will require 400,000 new jobs by 2030 – and not just jobs of the future. To make the Clean Energy transition we’re going to need tens of thousands of plasterers, roofers, plumbers and glaziers too, trades and businesses which might not think of themselves as being part of that energy transition now but who are fundamental to it and for whom there are huge supply chain opportunities coming. 

But energy isn’t just an economic opportunity by itself – it underpins and enables every other aspect of the North’s economic growth. 

The energy system is the arteries that connect out economy – put simply our region cannot attract, retain and grow the business, or the homes we need for their workforce, if there is nowhere for them to plug in – particularly energy intensive economic opportunities like data centres.  

Homegrown renewable energy also insulates those businesses – not to mention households – from the effects of energy price volatility.  

At the same time energy demand across the North East and Yorkshire is projected to double in the next ten years. 

The Hub provides free specialist resourcing to add capacity and expertise to help develop clean energy proposals to a point where they can attract investment.  

But the real importance of the clean energy transition lies in our communities. 

First of all, there’s the role reducing energy demand – there’s no point generating clean energy which literally goes straight out of the window, and the Hub leads a consortium of local authorities and housing providers to improve the energy efficiency of over 10,000 low income and social homes. 

And these aren’t numbers. These are people whose lives are better because of this work. Ralph and Sharron, who live in a property managed by Durham’s Believe Homes say since the work was done their home is: 

“Lovely and warm and cosy and our bills have already come down”  

Then there’s community energy – where local people come together to generate clean energy which benefits their communities.  

In 2019 research from the Hub identified just nine projects in the North East and Yorkshire.  

Today there are over 100. 

This isn’t just a nice thing for communities and community cohesion, or the environment.  

It doesn’t even just contribute to community resilience, by making sure there is a reserve of energy in the community in the event of power cuts.  

It doesn’t just save money on energy bills – and sometimes even generate income – for local organisations.  

It isn’t even good for the economy as these groups don’t just commission local businesses, they can become local businesses.  

They are a fundamental part of our developing energy system, which is expected to become more distributed – with power generated where it is used rather than being piped across the region – and also more flexible, meaning that the National Grid can bring in more supply at times of demand rather than having the entire energy system at full capacity at all times just in case. 

The Hub is supporting the community energy sector in the region in a number of ways. 

• Managing a number of national funding programmes – including the Great British Energy Community Fund which offers up to £140,000 of grant funding to get new projects off the ground.  

• Providing training, skills workshops and surgeries to give local projects more capacity and capability. 

• The Seeing is Believing project, which matchmakes successful community energy projects with local groups like them – other football teams, churches or charities who have been on an community energy journey – because if every community energy group inspires one other community energy group, the number of energy groups  

If you want to know what this looks like in practice, there’s a really great case study in Northumberland, where the Hub has provided funding for Northumberland Community Energy to develop a project to install solar panels on the roof of 50 community centres. In Newton and Bywell for example, the community centre is now 96% self-sufficient in energy – while battery storage means local people have somewhere to get warm and charge their phones in the event of any power cuts.  

As one of the Trustees puts it “this is about making the centre sustainable for the future – if we make our own energy, we don’t need to buy it off the grid” 

Or as another community group supported by the Hub – Bradford Trident – puts it. 

 “The more energy we generate on site, the less we have to buy in… the dividend is financial, but the bonus is our greatly reduced carbon footprint” 

This could be a metaphor for the benefits of the clean energy transition in general.  

More information about the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub can be found at www.neynetzerohub.com.

Clean Energy UK 2026 will be happening in Newcastle on 19th November 2026. You can enquire to get involved now by emailing enquiries@thesustainabilitycommunity.com