Local Energy Accelerator

As part of his work to make London a zero carbon city by 2030, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, wants the capital to use clean, flexible and locally generated energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has faced London with its most challenging period in recent history and the capital’s recovery will be based on delivering a Green New Deal to create good jobs and skills. Decarbonising quicker, in a fair and cost-effective way with less disruption for all Londoners is critical for a green economic recovery.

Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) is a £6m programme providing expertise and support to organisations to develop clean and locally generated energy projects. Projects will include district energy networks that use renewable heat sources (including river water and waste heat from London Underground), and energy technologies such as heat pumps, solar panels, batteries and smart electric vehicle charging to transform the way London generates, supplies and uses clean local energy in buildings and transport. LEA will focus on helping projects that are in their final stages and would benefit from support to deliver carbon savings.

It is one of four City Hall ‘accelerator’ programmes designed to speed up the pace of cutting carbon emissions, make London’s homes warm, healthy and affordable, its workplaces more energy efficient and to supply the capital with more local, clean and flexible energy.

See our LEA information brochure to learn more.

The Local Energy Accelerator will:

• Aim to deliver target annual savings of 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) per annum and 3MW of installed renewable energy capacity by summer 2023 (see methodology).
• Increase renewable energy generation capacity beyond the end of the programme.
• Increase the number of local jobs in the clean energy sector.
• Work with stakeholders to raise the skills, capacity and capability needed to develop and implement projects.
• Reduce fuel poverty through increasing flexibility of energy demand to cut energy costs.
• Identify strategically important distributed energy projects using clean secondary heat sources and renewable energy and bring them to market.
• Facilitate the development of area-wide district energy and smart grid networks.
• Enable expansion of district energy networks by facilitating the planning for and integration of cleaner locally available secondary heat sources and renewable energy.
• Build confidence in commercial markets and generate market efficiencies with common practices and standards.
• Inform and influence local and national Government policy and funding to accelerate achievement of net zero.

What types of projects will LEA fund?

Heating and powering London’s buildings accounts for around three quarters of the city’s carbon emissions. Clean and flexible distributed energy projects and networks are critical to decarbonising London’s energy system and delivering net zero carbon by 2030. Projects that transform the way London generates, supplies and uses clean local energy in buildings and transport will be eligible.

LEA wants to support projects that are strategically important for London’s good and fair growth, development and infrastructure needs. For example, district energy networks using renewable and recovered heat sources (like Bunhill 2 Energy Centre and North London District Energy), in heat network priority zones; renewable energy generation (like Old Oak and Park Royal Solar PV), storage and demand flexibility in areas of electricity grid constraint; and priority areas for transport electrification.

Projects that are at a later stage and ready to deliver significant carbon savings for London will be prioritised for support from LEA.

For a case study from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham click here.

Funded expertise and support available

LEA will deliver £6m of revenue grant support co-funded by the Mayor of London and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

This funding will be used to provide expertise from a framework of suppliers for public and private sector organisations to help them bring clean and flexible energy projects into operation across London.

LEA funds technical, commercial & financial, legal and strategic expertise to support work involved in the following stages of energy projects:

• Strategic development and master-planning
• Feasibility studies
• Business plans
• Detailed project design/development
• Procurement support
• Commercialisation support
• Day-to-day intensive project management support can be provided during all stages, including installation and delivery.

Support for more than one stage of the project can be applied for at the same time, for example feasibility and detailed project development.

The framework can be also be used by eligible organisations who are not using LEA funding, to procure the expertise they need to deliver projects across the UK. For a framework briefing pack please email LEA@london.gov.uk.

How do I apply?

Firstly, check if you’re eligible and if your project is suitable by reading our application guidance. Then arrange and attend a pre-application meeting with the PDU. After this, you will be ready to complete and submit a LEA application form to the GLA.

We aim to make a decision on all applications within two-four weeks. There is no deadline for applications but funding will be allocated on a first come first served basis according to our assessment criteria, as set out in the application guidance.

If you would like to find out more, contact the team at LEA@london.gov.uk