Cheerfully cut and pasted from a press release –

The Centre for Sustainable Energy is working with The Co-operative to deliver a new initiative called the Co-operative Community Energy Challenge, which forms an integral new element of The Co-operative’s Clean Energy Revolution campaign.

The Community Energy Challenge will provide 12-18 months of enterprise development, mentoring, technical advice and community facilitation for six to eight communities, enabling them to initiate co-operative renewable energy projects at a significant scale (e.g. valued at £1m to £3m and/or rated in excess of 500kW). As well as providing expert support, CSE can spend money on your behalf for any initial costs needed to get your project moving. See www.cse.org.uk/coopenergychallenge for more details on how to apply.

This support is being managed by CSE on behalf of The Co-operative. It builds on our PlanLoCaL programme and resources (see http://www.planlocal.org.uk) and aims to bring the selected community projects from across the UK to a state of readiness for further support and investment from The Co-operative Enterprise Hub and The Co-operative Bank.

There is a two-stage competitive application process for groups to become part of the Community Energy Challenge. Expressions of Interest need to have been received by 29 February 2012. Following this, successful groups will be offered support to complete a full bid. Lack of technical know-how should not be a barrier and communities with ambition are encouraged to apply at all stages of their project development.