Community energy: A practical guide to reclaiming power

Part 6

Making It Happen

25

Design & feasibility studies

Once you have decided what you want to build, you need a design and feasibility study. You will want a basic outline to help get finance (see next chapter), and it should include some aspects of how much wind, sun or other resource is available.

The design will be crucial for getting permission from the local planning authorities. A basic design template will involve:

  1. A plan of the current site,
  2. A plan of the proposed finished site,
  3. The specifications of any proposed hardware systems.

Business plan

A business plan will be very useful for your project. It will help a lot when approaching a bank or other partners. The simple exercise of sitting down in your group and making such a plan can in itself be very useful as the discussions and vision will need to get concrete and clear.

  • Checklist | Making a business plan More info

    There is no predefined list of things a business plan should cover but we could easily think of the following:

    • What is your overall long-term vision, mission and objective?
    • Which strategy do you want to put in place to achieve your overall mission?
    • Which topics do you want to focus on first? Energy efficiency and energy savings? Renewable energy? Transportation? Heating and cooling? Cooperatives typically start with a specific focus, and often take on more challenges with time.
    • Which activities do you want to bring forward first? Production? Supply? A combination of both? Storage and flexibility, including aggregation and demand response? Distribution grid management? Again, you may want to start with one activity and expand in the future.
    • What will your governance model look like? Who will own the project: citizens, the municipality or a third partner? Is a legal entity needed Should it be cooperative?
    • To whom will you reach out to? Who will lead the campaign? Do you have support from local authorities?
    • How will you finance your project? Will your project be economically viable?How much revenues and how much costs can you reasonably expect?How will that evolve over time?

    A business plan is not a static document, it will likely change over time and you will likely have several versions. It’s also crucially important not to leave this work with just one person. A plan should be discussed with the entire group and ideally, be the result of a collective thinking exercise.