The Communities Stream of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme was open to the public sector, charitable bodies and community organisations. They could apply for funding of up to £30,000 or 50% of the eligible costs of the installation whichever was the lower amount.

Applications could be made for any of the following technologies;

• Solar photovoltaics (PV)
• Wind turbines
• Small scale hydro
• Solar thermal hot water
• Ground/water/air source heat pumps
• Wood fuelled heating (principally wood fuelled (biomass) boilers with or without CHP but not including wood fuelled by municipal solid waste or CHP fired using natural gas)

As with the householder stream certified installers and products had to be used.

Grants were available for projects across the UK, excluding the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

This stream is now closed for new applications; community groups, public and non-profit sector organisations can now only apply to Phase 2 of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme where grants of up to £1m are available. For more details on phase 2 please click here to be taken to their website.

Click here to view statistics for Stream 1 - Communities grant applications by country and region.

If you would like to read about community projects that have been funded via the Low Carbon Buildings Programme please select a case study from the list below.