Greater Manchester’s community energy network
A network for the people and organisations building locally owned, locally beneficial energy projects across the city region, whether you are already controlling renewable energy assets or are getting started with an idea or a community hub.
What do we mean by community energy?
Community energy is an approach that involves local control and democratic ownership of clean energy assets and the delivery of energy services, with an emphasis on local economic benefit. It generates holistic environmental, social and economic impacts, and plays a key role in securing consent and legitimacy for a just and fair clean energy transition.
In practice, across Greater Manchester, that takes many different forms. It can look like solar on schools and community buildings, hydroelectric generation on the rivers, retrofit co-ops making our homes more energy efficient, energy advice projects working with homeowners and those experiencing fuel poverty, and a plenty of groups who are at the very start of their journey.
Why a network?
What’s been missing is the connective tissue: somewhere to find out who else is doing this, what worked, what didn’t, and who to ask.
This network exists to provide it. It brings together local energy groups, voluntary sector organisations, co-operatives and community anchor organisations from all ten boroughs, so that knowledge, contacts and hard-won experience circulate instead of getting lost when a project ends or a volunteer moves on.
It’s free to be part of, and it’s open to anyone working on or thinking about community energy in Greater Manchester.
1.
Monthly meet-ups Informal, social gatherings. Come and talk to people wrestling with the same planning rules, grid connection queues and challenges as you. This is Fuelling Greater Manchester, which has been running in one form or another for over a decade.
2.
Site visits Get inside real community energy projects: hydro schemes, school solar arrays, retrofit demonstrations and more. Hear from the people who have delivered them, what went right, what went wrong and the lessons learned along the way.
3.
Training and learning sessions Practical sessions hosted across Greater Manchester, with guest speakers on the things groups actually get stuck on: legal structures, community share offers, PPAs, grid applications, governance.
4.
Resources and support A regular newsletter, shared tools and templates, funding alerts, and signposting to the people who can answer your specific question.
Join the network mailing list
To stay informed on future developments and opportunities for community energy in Greater Manchester, join our mailing list. It’s how the network runs day to day. Sign up and you’ll get:
- Meet-up dates and site visit invitations, first
- Funding rounds and deadlines relevant to GM groups
- Training sessions and guest speakers
- What other groups in the network are up to, and what they’ve learned
- Policy changes that actually affect community energy here
Roughly monthly. Unsubscribe at any time. No spam, and we won’t pass your details to anyone.
Meet the community – Fuelling Greater Manchester
Fuelling Greater Manchester is the network’s social. It’s been bringing community renewables people together across the city region for over a decade.
It’s a chance to meet people from local community energy organisations and those supporting the sector. There’s no agenda and no presentation, just the opportunity to meet like-minded people in a relaxed and informal setting. New groups are especially welcome; nobody will make you explain your legal structure.
The evidence behind the network
In March 2026, Carbon Co-op and Regen published Building Community Power, commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. It looks at how the city region can hit its clean energy ambitions by working with community energy rather than around it.
The research drew on interviews with local community energy groups, conversations with council officers, national stakeholder interviews, and a spatial analysis of where generation potential actually sits across Greater Manchester.
Among its recommendations: a dedicated support and coordination network for community energy in GM, a matchmaking service to connect groups with local authority officers and site owners, a GM Community Energy Fund, and greater use of public sector power purchase agreements to underwrite local generation.
This network is the first of those recommendations, being put into practice.
This network is for you if you’re:
- An established community energy organisation in Greater Manchester
- A group with an idea, a building, or a bit of roof and no clear next step
- A voluntary or community organisation looking at energy for the first time
- A community anchor organisation, faith group, school, or sports club with a site
- A local authority officer or housing provider wanting to work with the sector
- Someone who just wants to know what’s happening in GM community energy
You don’t need to be constituted, funded, or technical. Turning up is enough.