Carbon Neutral Communities

Working with the 4 Streets in Hove neighbourhood to develop community-led retrofit and solar power upgrades

The Carbon Neutral Communities (CNC) project, led by Brighton & Hove Energy Services Co-op (BHESCo), sought to enable local residents to collaborate on reducing carbon emissions through home retrofitting and community-owned solar energy. This report summarises the project’s approach, goals, lessons, and conclusions.

Approach and Goals

The project aimed to create a scalable model for communities to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Specifically, CNC focused on two primary objectives:

1. Home Retrofitting: Improve the thermal efficiency of homes to enhance energy conservation and prepare for future technologies like heat pumps.

2. Community Solar Installation: Install solar panels on suitable roofs and prepare for increased future needs, such as electric vehicle (EV) charging points and ‘peer-to-peer’ domestic energy sharing. Launched in October 2023, CNC was promoted through a community competition inviting neighbourhoods in Brighton & Hove to form focus groups and gather resident pledges. The selected community would engage in a street-wide retrofit and solar panel installation, leveraging community networks for organisation and local engagement.

Key Findings

The CNC project faced various challenges but provided valuable insights into neighbourhood-scale energy projects. Here are the main findings:

Community Engagement and Focus Group Effectiveness:

The competition structure required communities to form focus groups to drive local interest and participation. While this approach succeeded in sparking initial interest, it became evident that the limited promotion time hindered engagement, especially within marginalised communities.

The Focus Group played a critical role, managing outreach, facilitating door-to-door engagement, and distributing project materials. However, training gaps in areas such as door-knocking techniques and project knowledge impacted effectiveness.

Home Retrofit Implementation:

The retrofit phase categorised homes into property archetypes to streamline assessment and to recommend suitable energy efficiency measures for a cluster of properties. Although categorising homes helped address common structural characteristics, households often required specific information, leading some to drop out due to cost, anticipated disruption, or inadequate understanding about available measures.

Financial barriers and lack of effective government grants (such as the Great British Insulation Scheme or ECO4) restricted broader accessibility, effectively excluding lower-income participants. Despite these challenges, households valued the technical advice provided, and the process highlighted the need for more tailored communication and consistent support to build homeowner confidence.

Challenges with Community Solar Installations:

Solar panel installation encountered significant logistical issues, primarily due to small or flat roofs that limited capacity or proved difficult to insure against wind damage. For the Pay-as-you-Save model to remain financially viable, installations needed to produce sufficient energy, which became challenging given the architectural constraints.

A key barrier to expanding solar was the inability to engage larger entities (e.g., schools, businesses) that could have provided additional rooftop space, thereby increasing energy generation potential and cost efficiency for the community.

Digital Engagement through Fairerwarmth:

The project utilised the Fairerwarmth app to centralize data and streamline communication, expecting the app to facilitate community engagement. However, user adoption was low, especially among older demographics who found it difficult to use.

Many participants preferred communication channels like WhatsApp, and the Fairerwarmth app’s lack of mobile compatibility further hindered its utility. The team recognised that initial training sessions and more flexible, alternative options could improve digital engagement.

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

The CNC project provided insights into optimising neighbourhood-level energy initiatives:

Longer and Targeted Promotion:

Insufficient time for promotion led to rushed engagement. For broader inclusion, especially within marginalised and rental communities, extended promotion timelines and culturally tailored messaging are essential.

Enhanced Focus Group Training and Role Delegation

While the Focus Group strategy generated strong community bonds, training in project communication and role-specific assignments could improve consistency and reduce burnout among key members. Regular meetings could support momentum and strengthen accountability, keeping participants informed about project progress and next steps.

Adapted Digital Engagement Strategy

 The challenges with Fairerwarmth highlight the need for versatile digital tools that accommodate varied technological comfort levels. Training sessions could familiarise focus groups with the benefits of digital tools, while supplementary materials could be offered in print and web-based formats.

Refinement of Retrofit Recommendations

The archetype-based recommendation approach proved too generic. More personalised guidance, starting from the initial assessments, could improve homeowner satisfaction and reduce dropout rates.

Proactive Community Solar Engagement

The team found that earlier engagement with large community stakeholders would have bolstered solar viability. Integrating these stakeholders earlier would expand installation capacity, improve financial viability, and create greater environmental impact.

Conclusion

The Carbon Neutral Communities project demonstrates that neighbourhood-scale energy initiatives can succeed with strong community engagement, clear communication, and adaptable project structures. Key challenges included limited promotion time, high costs that limited participation to affluent households, and logistical issues with roof suitability for solar installation. 

Financial constraints and the inability to access sufficient government grants limited access to low-income households, raising questions about the inclusivity of similar initiatives.

The project’s focus on community-centred implementation underscored the importance of collective effort in addressing climate change and the need for flexible, user-friendly tools. As the BHESCo team continues refining our model, we aim to address these challenges in future projects, expanding accessibility and improving process efficiency. 

The CNC project contributed valuable insights into scaling neighbourhood-level energy initiatives, underscoring the role of collaborative community action in sustainable development.