Powering Up: Building capacity for energy resilience in deprived areas

This research, an ethnographic study forming the first phase of a longer project delivered by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) , sought to understand householders’ lived experience of energy and their relationship with their local community, in some of the most deprived communities in the South West of England and South Wales. This initial study aimed to establish a basis for further work with these communities, through understanding participants’ current knowledge of the energy system, and the potential for community energy activity.

The research involved in-depth interviews with three participants in each of the three communities, and group workshops bringing participants from each community together. The focus of the interviews was on understanding householders’ perceptions of energy use in the home, their knowledge of the energy system and their place in it, their sense of the community in which they live, and the capacity of the community to develop its own community energy projects.

In addition, this ethnographic work aimed to develop and pilot methods – particularly via the group workshops – that could be used in these and other deprived communities, to facilitate discussion of energy use, the energy system, and the potential for community energy projects. A separate briefing note discusses the format of these workshops and how they might be developed for further use with communities.