For years, Scottish communities have spent years living beside wind farms and solar arrays without ever really owning a stake in them. Developers infrastructure, took the profits, and offered communities little more than a modest community fund and a view littered with turbines. 

That model is changing and Scotland is leading a shift. 

A £15 million boost for community ownership 

Through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), the Scottish Government is helping local groups move from spectators to shareholders in Scotland’s green energy economy. Funding available through the scheme is rising to £15 million this year, meaning more groups can develop their own onshore wind, solar and heat pump projects, and cut energy bills by installing heat pumps and solar panels. 

CARES has already delivered more than £83 million to communities across Scotland, supporting over 1,200 projects and 75 megawatts of renewable energy capacity — roughly enough to power 12,000 to 15,000 average homes for an entire year. 

This amount of energy is not only enough to make a dent in local amenity bills, but also critical local income. 

Ending the ‘passive host model’ 

The real innovation isn’t the amount of energy that gets produced. It’s about who keeps the money. 

Announcing the funding boost, First Minister John Swinney said the Government is moving beyond the idea of communities as passive hosts of energy infrastructure, instead helping them invest in, own and benefit from their clean energy future. 

Under the old hosting model, profits typically flowed to a private developer headquartered far from where the turbines live. Ownership flips the equation: the profits stay local, funding everything from social housing to youth programmes to the next renewable project. 

That structural shift matters most for Scotland’s rural and island communities, who are often asked to accommodate the visual and physical footprint of clean energy infrastructure without gaining meaningful returns. 

Not just grants 

CARES, delivered by Local Energy Scotland, also offers technical and financial advice helping communities navigate planning permission, grid connections and financial modelling — the common hurdles that often keep good ideas from becoming built projects. 

A blueprint for the rest of the UK

As other parts of the UK weigh how to accelerate their own renewable rollouts, Scotland’s community-ownership model offers a practical blueprint: proof that decarbonisation and local prosperity can be built alongside the benefits of the community. 

Charity check-in

At Smiley Movement, we like to elevate the work of charities across the world. Here are three charities whose causes align with the themes in this article. 

Energy4All. Founded by members of the UK’s first community wind co-operative, this Barrow-in-Furness-based organisation has helped set up more than 30 community-owned renewable energy co-operatives across the UK, spanning wind, solar, hydro and biomass. Find out more.

Power for All. This global campaign mobilises governments, businesses and civil society to accelerate decentralised renewable energy. Find out more here.

RE-volv. This US-based nonprofit helps other nonprofit communities in underinvested communities go solar so important buildings like shelters, health clinics and community centres cut energy costs.  Support them here.

This positive news article aligns with the UN SDG Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Infrastructure and Innovation, Sustainable Communities.