CARES Community Energy Growth Fund: Feasibility
Scottish community organisations can get up to GBP 20,000 for renewable-energy feasibility work, covering up to 100% of eligible costs. The current round closes at noon on 14 September 2026, with eligibility checks required at least a week before submission.
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The feasibility stage of the Scottish Government's Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) Community Energy Growth Fund helps a community decide whether an identified renewable-energy project is worth developing. Local Energy Scotland administers the fund.
A grant can cover up to 100% of eligible costs, capped at GBP 20,000. Eligible work includes site-specific feasibility studies, resource assessments, technical and financial feasibility work, and preliminary development activities. Support from CARES' appointed specialist contractors may also be available. Repeat applications are allowed, but assessment may consider earlier delivery, value for money and progress after previous CARES-funded studies.
Claims are made in stages as contractor invoices arrive, using the percentage in the grant offer letter. Have any required matching funds in place before contracting or drawing down funding. Exclude VAT that you can reclaim, or that is not chargeable, from the requested costs.
Matching funds cannot come from other Scottish Government grants or contributions of unpaid work or donated goods and services. National Lottery Community funding cannot match a National Lottery-funded CARES award. Community reserves, fundraising, community-benefit funds, eligible other grants and bank loans are potential sources. The Scottish Government SME Loan Scheme may be used only without its cashback grant.
This is a competitive award. Scottish Government confirmation of overall programme funding and permission to award new funds are prerequisites to funding decisions. Funding is not formally committed until you receive, sign and return the grant offer letter. Future phases require separate applications and future funding is not guaranteed.
Eligibility
Apply as a Scottish community organisation that does not distribute surpluses to members, including on winding up. Eligible structures include Scottish charitable incorporated organisations, companies limited by guarantee, community benefit societies, community interest companies, registered unincorporated charities and community amateur sports clubs. Provide the relevant charity, company or Financial Conduct Authority registration number and governing documents showing your status and community purpose.
Your organisation must serve a defined geographical community or community of interest, including faith groups, with its area of benefit in Scotland. Its board or management committee must include at least three unrelated people local to that area. Two trustees or directors must complete identity and anti-money-laundering checks.
Have an identified project, potential site, technology and delivery approach. Projects must use proven technology; technology research and development is excluded. The project must be community-owned and include at least one of these:
- New community-owned renewable electricity generation with at least 100 kW of installed capacity, measuring the power its generators can produce. This can combine sites or renewable technologies, or expand an earlier funded project.
- New storage able to hold at least 100 kWh of energy that provides services to the wider electricity grid or energy system.
- Storage or demand flexibility added to an existing or new community-owned renewable generation project with at least 100 kW of total generation capacity. Demand flexibility means shifting electricity use or supply to help the system operate efficiently.
Storage capacity cannot count toward the 100 kW generation minimum. Smaller solar projects on third-party buildings, wind or hydro projects may receive case-by-case exceptions. Support may also be available for repowering an existing project—replacing or upgrading its generating equipment. Demonstrate significant, lasting community benefit and explain how project income will support that benefit.
Electricity may be sold to the grid, supplied directly to a local user with sufficient demand, or used by a building or site. Projects serving buildings with decarbonised heating are preferred. Where heating has not been decarbonised, consideration is case by case and requires half-hourly electricity-use data showing enough daytime demand, plus a credible plan to decarbonise heating.
Uphold the CARES equality charter and provide the signed declaration. Do not discriminate on protected characteristics, including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Where a community building is involved, it must welcome everyone. By the time a revenue-generating project has funds to distribute, have a community action plan encouraging participation from all community members and a fair, inclusive fund-distribution strategy.
If you employ people, pay at least the real Living Wage and provide effective ways for staff to express views, individually and collectively, under Fair Work First. Organisations with fewer than 21 workers need not evidence the collective channel, but must still provide both kinds of voice. Sign the required joint declarations at application and before the final claim. The wage condition covers UK staff aged 16 and over, including apprentices; the wage self-declaration also covers contractors and agency staff. Commit to the remaining Fair Work First criteria and publish the requested short joint statement on your website, including the wage and worker-voice conditions. Evidence requirements depend on total CARES funding during the financial year.
Local Energy Scotland assesses whether an award is a public subsidy and tells you the route in writing. Most subsidy awards use CARES scheme SC11309, which does not reduce the separate Minimal Financial Assistance allowance. If the award instead uses that allowance, you must declare that it will not take relevant assistance above GBP 315,000 across the current and previous two financial years.
How to apply
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- Full applications close at noon on 14 September 2026. Eligibility checks and documents must be completed at least one week before submission.
- Awards depend on Scottish Government funding confirmation and approval; funded work and all claims must finish by 15 March 2027.
In the CARES Project Portal, begin a new project and submit an expression of interest, then complete the Organisation Fund Eligibility Check. Your organisation's trustees or staff must complete the application; applications completed by installers or contractors on your behalf are rejected.
Upload the project details, governing documents, a recent organisational bank statement, latest published accounts, evidence of authority to apply, the trustee/director equality declaration and the signed fair-work confirmation. If your organisation is under 21 months old and has no published accounts, you may instead provide its creation date and the date its first accounts are due. Complete the linked identity-verification checks for two trustees or directors and answer the subsidy questions.
You must finish the eligibility checks and submit their documents at least one week before submitting a full application. The full-application deadline is noon on 14 September 2026. A group starting eligibility checks immediately before that deadline cannot meet this lead-time requirement. Once eligibility is confirmed, submit the full application through the portal during the funding round.
Explain the feasibility work, milestones, costs, community benefits, delivery team and route toward a viable project. Panel assessment considers viability, impact, deliverability and value for money. If you propose an existing or preferred contractor for feasibility work, explain why that is appropriate and how you will achieve value for money.
If approved, receive, sign and return the grant offer letter before treating funding as committed. Submit staged claims as invoices arrive, at the awarded percentage, with any matching funds in place before contracting and drawing down funds. Complete all funded activities and submit every funding claim by 15 March 2027.
Acknowledge CARES support in promotional activity and on-site signage. Follow applicable modern-slavery and human-trafficking requirements and take proportionate steps to identify and reduce exploitation risks in the project's supply chain.