Community Energy School Solar Programme

Essex County Council (ECC) is exploring a countywide programme to support the deployment of rooftop solar PV and other sustainability initiatives across the 556 schools in Essex, in collaboration with the local community energy sector. This programme would be successful if we were able to engage half of the total schools and develop delivery models appropriate to a variety of contexts and status for individual schools.

Intended outcomes of the programme will be to significantly increase renewable generation across Essex through using the roof space on the school estate, lower schools' energy costs, provide opportunities for community ownership of renewable generation, and promote engagement and education on sustainability initiatives within schools.

One clear priority of the programme is to engage and collaborate with the growing community energy sector in Essex and enable community investment and ownership of solar PV on schools.

While our initial focus is on scaling renewable energy generation on the school estate, our ambition is to develop a more holistic programme that provides solutions across multiple decarbonisation and sustainability interventions. DfE and central government are placing greater emphasis on the role schools and education facilities can play in net zero and climate goals, so there is an opportunity to deliver additional benefit.

ECC intends to procure a delivery partner (or consortium) with the expertise and capacity to work collaboratively with us, schools, and our community energy groups. Before initiating a full procurement process, ECC is carrying out this market engagement exercise to better understand the range of services available, delivery models, market capability, and any considerations that should inform our programme design.

The programme aims to:

• Assess and prioritise rooftop solar PV potential across the Essex school estate.
• Engage and support schools to understand the benefits of installing renewable energy generation at their schools and to the benefits of community energy.
• Provide technical feasibility assessments, business case development, and project development support.
• Work collaboratively with the community energy sector to deliver projects that offer community investment and ownership opportunities.
• Develop variety of delivery models suitable for a range of school type, context and funding models.
• Explore additional sustainability opportunities, such as energy efficiency upgrades, demand reduction, water efficiency upgrades, and wider decarbonisation and sustainability options for schools.

ECC is particularly interested in delivery partners that can operate in a collaborative, facilitative, and partnership based way with the community energy sector.

To engage with us, please fill out this form > forms.cloud.microsoft/e/r7MMWx8wc7 ↗

It is important to note that this market engagement exercise is not a call for competition and as such you will need to express your interest in any future tender opportunity once the contract notice is published on Find a Tender.

It should also be noted that this market engagement exercise invites individuals and organisations to express an interest in this exercise only, and it is NOT a pre-qualification questionnaire, and is NOT part of any pre-qualification or selection process.

This market engagement exercise is intended as an awareness, communication, and information gathering exercise. An expression of interest is no indication of a commitment to participate in any future tendering process nor does it infer any preferential or special status on those individuals and organisations who participate.