Growing Community Energy.

How Agrivoltaics can power a revolution in energy production and food security.

This project is supported by, and is an outcome of, Community Climate Action planning.

Powering our rural future through community ownership and innovation.

Growing Community Energy is an initiative from Suffolk Environmental Services CIC Ltd, a not for profit company created by the Suffolk Green Cluster of villages on the Norfolk–Suffolk border.

Together, they’re developing one of the region’s most ambitious community owned renewable energy schemes - combining wind power, solar energy, and regenerative agriculture to build a cleaner, fairer, and more resilient local economy.

This Agrivoltaic project will generate energy, powering the local community, while ensuring the land is also used productively to cultivate food; creating both energy and food resilience.

The Vision

Suffolk Green Cluster believes communities should not just host renewable energy, but own it. By co-locating wind turbines with agrivoltaics — solar panels designed to work alongside food production — they’re pioneering a model that keeps farmland productive, reduces carbon emissions, and generates local revenue to reinvest in community benefit. Their project will power over 6,000 homes and save more than 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

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Growing Community Energy.

  • This feasibility study is funded by Great British Energy Community Fund (GBECF) from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). It will assess the technical, financial, and social potential for:

    Up to 11 MW of community-owned generation:

    Three 2MW wind turbines.

    A 5MW Agrivoltaic solar array integrated with working farmland.

    Battery storage to balance generation and grid supply.

    Enough renewable power for more than 6,000 homes.

    An annual carbon saving of over 4,000 tonnes CO2 per year.

  • This project has grown directly from local Community Climate Action planning. Parish councils, landowners, and residents across Blo Norton, Hopton-cum- Knettishall, Thelnetham, Hinderclay and Redgrave collaborating to create Suffolk’s first Green Cluster: a network of rural communities pooling knowledge, skills, funding and land to develop shared energy resilience.

  • All assets will be held in community ownership through a Community Benefit Society, ensuring profits stay local. Surplus will go to a Community Benefit Fund that will support projects tackling fuel poverty, biodiversity loss, and rural transport. Local contractors will be prioritised, creating jobs and new skills within the region. The feasibility study will explore with stakeholders how the fund can be managed to meet the society’s purpose and how it might also deliver a “precept” to local Parishes involved in the project.

  • By trialling agrivoltaics and integrating multiple renewable technologies, Growing Community Energy will demonstrate how rural areas can combine food security with clean-energy generation. The project partners with innovators such as Bloom Renewables and is part of the wider Suffolk Community Energy Network, supported by Suffolk County Council and the Suffolk Climate Change Partnership.


Next Steps

Suffolk Green Cluster’s feasibility phase is bringing stakeholders, councils, businesses, residents and landowner together. Assessing the technical, financial, and social potential, identifying community benefit to deliver a “shovel-ready” proposal for planning and community investment — paving the way for local people to co-own the future of their energy supply.

Andy Warnes, Director, Suffolk Environmental Services CIC Ltd

“We’re showing that rural communities can take control of their energy future — generating clean power, retaining value locally, and building resilience from the ground up.”