Crich Parish Community Energy
Transition Crich is driving forward a community energy initiative for Crich Parish. But what do we mean by community energy, what is our vision for renewable energy in Crich and how will we go about delivering local energy projects for the benefit of the community?
What is Community Energy
Community energy is a local approach to generating, saving and sharing low-carbon energy for the benefit of local people. Rather than relying only on large commercial suppliers or developments, communities can design and deliver their own renewable energy projects on their terms while reinvesting the financial returns into local priorities.
This approach reduces carbon emissions and costs associated with larger developments and grid upgrades, strengthens local energy security, keeps profits circulating within the community and can keep local energy costs down. Across the UK, many villages and towns are forming community energy groups to develop their own clean energy sources, improve home energy efficiency and tackle fuel poverty.
Crich Community Energy Vision
In March 2025, residents of Crich, Fritchley and Whatstandwell worked with CPRE Derbyshire and Transition Crich to create a Community Energy Vision through a series of workshops. Participants mapped where renewable energy could be sensitively located, balancing the need for low-carbon solutions to address the climate emergency with the area’s cherished countryside.
CPRE Derbyshire and Transition Crich gratefully acknowledge the generous project funding provided by Keele University through its 2024–2025 QR Participatory Research Fund (Scheme Code: IFB004, Principal Investigator: Dr Xihui Chen, Keele Business School, x.chen@keele.ac.uk).
In summary, the vision shows that we as a Parish are in favour of renewable energy and would support hosting new installations in our countryside. Any developments would be sensitively positioned to protect the landscapes and biodiversity that we and visitors value.
Solutions from the vision include:
- A solar power first approach – aim to mount solar on up to 25% of homes and community or farm buildings in Crich, plus explore ground-mounted solar on well-screened brownfield sites such as Crich Quarry and Roes Lane landfill.
- Wind power where suitable – explore options for up to three medium-sized wind turbines in carefully chosen locations, accounting for landscape sensitivity.
- Energy efficiency – work with partners to support widespread home insulation upgrades and switch from gas heating to electric heat pumps.
- Additional options – consider the value of small-scale hydro installations on the River Derwent, battery energy storage systems and communal ground-source heat pumps for new housing.
Taken together, these measures could generate enough low-carbon electricity to meet or even exceed current local domestic demand. They could also go a long way to meeting future demand scenarios supporting heat pump and electric vehicle adoption.
Moving forward with a Community Energy Organisation
With the vision in place, Transition Crich is exploring the creation of a dedicated community energy organisation that will deliver these energy projects and reinvest any profits locally.
Once established, this organisation could look to take the following steps to start delivering the energy vision:
- Start small – identify quick win project opportunities such as a rooftop solar on community and farm buildings.
- Engage with partners and the community - continue to build relationships with local businesses, landowners and relevant organisations such as the Parish Council, CPRE Derbyshire, Marches Energy Agency, energy installers as well as drawing on research and facilitation support from Keele University . As a community-led organisation we will continue to engage with the community on project proposals and delivery.
- Secure funding – apply for grants, explore community share offers and work with experienced partners like Community Energy England, Big Solar Coop and Energy4All to support and help finance and manage projects.
- Deliver projects – work with partners to distribute funding and deliver viable projects.
- Increase impact – reinvest surplus income from our projects into further renewable energy projects and making local households and businesses more energy efficient.
Want to get involved?
Residents interested in shaping Crich’s clean energy future can sign up to our newsletter for updates or volunteer by emailing transitioncrich@gmail.com
Illustrations © Christine Gregory 2025
Thank you to Derbyshire Artist Christine Gregory for the beautiful illustrations.
Disclaimer: the artist’s impressions are illustrative montages showing technologies and locations which have been suggested by local residents attending the community workshops. They do not imply any intention to develop those sites by the relevant landowner or indicate the feasibility of doing so, either in engineering or planning terms. They have been created to indicate what change might look like in the local landscape and to foster further discussion of the need for and acceptability of such changes.