Northumberland Community Energy Ltd
Northumberland Community Energy Ltd (NCEL): Solar-Powered Community Buildings – Bringing Rural Communities Together.
Northumberland Community Energy Ltd (NCEL) is a not-for-profit cooperative installing solar panels and battery storage on village halls, churches and community-owned sports facilities across rural Northumberland. NCEL raises the capital for every installation, leases the roof space, and supplies the buildings with solar power at a discounted rate, fixed for 20 years. NCEL take on all the financial and technical risks. Sixteen installations are complete, from Carrshield Village in the south of Northumberland to Crookham Village Hall, next to the Scottish Border. Another 67 buildings are in the pipeline with NCEL aiming for 100 installations by 2029. Beyond cutting energy costs, the model builds resilience: battery storage keeps power flowing during storm-related outages or rural outages for buildings that often double up warm hubs and emergency rest centres. NCEL’s is a collaborative approach and depends upon the full involvement of the community buildings trustees and is supported by Community Action Northumberland and Rural Design Centre. This holistic model is now being followed by other areas around the country. The sixteen installations completed so far span some of the county’s most remote village halls and rural town community hubs, all benefiting from the community focused and centralised technical and financial expertise the collaborative model provides.
Nominations details
Why this matters
This is a unique approach to decarbonising a wide range of rural community buildings, significantly reducing their energy costs, increasing community resilience and reducing carbon emissions. This enables each building to operate efficiently, maximising its use by local communities. NCEL is a co-operative, fully controlled by representatives from the community buildings themselves with project support from Community Action Northumberland and the Rural Design Centre.
Impact
The installations vary in size and location. Some are very remote and located in the National Park, some are in more populated areas of rural Northumberland. All benefit from the centralised expertise developed through the NCEL collaborative approach. All buildings have reduced their energy costs (around 50% per building) and exported energy to the national grid – our largest installation exported 25 MW of electricity during 2025. This not only supports the community buildings and their range of users, but also contributes to the wider decarbonisation of England as a whole.
Inclusion and accessibility
Village halls and other community buildings are the centre of community activity and service delivery in rural Northumberland. Some house health services, some local business activity, community gyms, outreach services from the public and voluntary sector and much, much more. NCEL has enabled the buildings to maximise their availability to this range of services, keeping hire costs to reasonable levels and acting as beacons for each local community.
