Community Solar Accelerator

NOTE: We are not taking any more applications for the CSA grant. Thank you for your interest. The grant’s details are still visible as a reference for current live projects.

Community Solar Accelerator is a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded, SME support project, delivered by Brighton Energy Co-op.

The project aims to support the shift towards a low carbon economy in the Coast to Capital region and beyond, by promoting solar PV & electric vehicle charging use in SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises)

Community Solar Accelerator will enable SMEs to reduce CO2 emissions by match funded grants of up to £25,000 towards either:

  • Solar PV arrays
  • Solar PV arrays & electric vehicle charging points

Grants are available at up to 40% of total eligible costs and are paid once the work is done and paid for. Match funding of 60% of the project cost will come from the SME and loans, investments, savings and company reserves can be used. However, please note your time can’t be included as match funding.

The Community Solar Accelerator programme will run until 30th June 2023.

Expression Of Interest

Please note that the size of solar array we can fund is typically between 30KW and 80KW. As a guide a 30KW array takes about 180 square meters which is a bit smaller than the area of a singles tennis court, whereas 80KW needs around 480 square meters which is a bit smaller than the area of a standard 25M swimming pool.

If you require a smaller array than 30KW please have a look at the LoCASE fund  which can provide smaller grants.

Start

To be eligible for support, you just have to meet the following criteria:

  • You must be a small or medium enterprise (SME). This includes:
  • Employing 250 (FTE) employees or less
  • Having an annual turnover of £44M or less and an annual balance sheet of £38M or less
  • If another firm owns more than a quarter of your company, they must meet the above criteria
  • Your organisation must not have received more than approximately £180,000 of state aid in the last three years
  • Community Solar Accelerator grants are predominantly for organisations registered and operating in the Coast to Capital LEP area, though organisations from more-developed regions of England are eligible

If you would like to find out if your organisations is eligible, please complete the Expression of Interest at this link.

Community Solar Accelerator is funded by the European Regional Development Fund 2014 – 2020.

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