The Energy Resilience Fund

The Energy Resilience Fund is a partnership funder programme offering payments of between £25,000 and £250,000, made up of a fixed amount of loan (60%) and grant (40%). The scheme has a loan repayment term of 1-10 years at a 8.5% fixed loan interest rate per annum on the loan balance. There is also a loan arrange fee of 2.5% of the loan value, which can be added to the balance of the loan.

The scheme is for charities and social enterprises based in and delivering impact in England who are looking to improve their energy resilience. This could be for many different reasons, for example reduced carbon emissions, energy cost savings, upgrading energy efficiency ratings to meet future regulations, increased use or comfort of buildings, replacing older vehicles and equipment with modern energy efficient versions. 

Any funding awarded must be used to install energy saving measures or generation technology to buildings/land (including new builds), and/or purchase energy efficient or environmentally friendly vehicles or equipment. Applications to install energy saving/generating measures to a building or on land will need to be informed by an Independent Energy Assessment. The funding can also be used solely to enable other energy efficiency work to happen.

The funding can be used for such things as (please note that this is not an exclusive list):  

• Battery storage systems.
  
• Energy efficient/ environmentally friendly equipment e.g. catering or manufacturing equipment.
  
• Energy efficient/saving lighting systems.
  
• Electric vehicles (this can include battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and hydrogen vehicles).
  
• Glazing upgrades.
  
• Heat pumps or other forms of energy efficient heating systems (including gas boiler upgrades).
  
• Insulation installation/upgrades.
  
• Low head hydro systems.
  
• Small-scale wind turbines.
  
• Solar PV panel systems, and/or
  
• Solar water heating systems. 

The Fund can also cover a wide range of costs. This may include (but is not limited to): 

• Building Management Systems (BMS) to optimise management of all energy efficiency technology and sensors.
  
• Capital costs of the material/equipment itself.
  
• Costs of project management.
  
• Costs (within reason) for work directly required to enable the energy efficiency measures to be implemented.
  
• Labour costs of the installation or changes to building fabric.
  
• Project budget contingency.
  
• Revenue losses (within reason) considered up to a maximum of 15% of the total funding (unless there are clear reasons for higher levels by exception) if the work will disrupt income for a period of time.
  
• Training for building users in relation to energy use of the building, and
  
• Training for staff in relation to building energy efficiency management.