Planned upgrades to the UK's electricity grid are on a scale not seen for decades, coming at a time of increased public scrutiny of both major infrastructure projects and utility providers. Grid operators needed to understand what the public expect from engagement around grid upgrades, and what would make the substantial impacts of new infrastructure acceptable to communities.

Funded by the European Climate Foundation, the Sounding Board was a six-month deliberative citizens' assembly bringing together 45 residents from the East Coast of the UK - the location of the most immediate planned grid works. The assembly was designed and led by Climate Guide, working in in partnership with the Local Storytelling Exchange and Sustainability First, who are using the findings to develop voluntary guidelines for grid operators.

Participants were recruited using stratified random selection, and the assembly met six times between April and October 2025, hearing from expert speakers on how the grid works, who regulates it, and why upgrades are needed for both energy security and climate goals.

The process was designed as "agonistic" rather than consensus-seeking - accepting that disagreement is healthy and productive rather than something to be eliminated. This was particularly appropriate given that grid infrastructure decisions involve genuinely competing values unlikely to be resolved through more discussion.

The assembly moved beyond purely qualitative, discursive techniques, incorporating robust academic methods such as Q-Sort methodology - a research technique that forces participants to rank competing priorities against each other rather than rate them individually, an analysis that helped identify four distinct value-based perspectives

The Impact

The research provided policy-makers with evidence of genuinely competing priorities that cannot be reconciled through better information alone, alongside some areas of consensus. The process demonstrated that when given time, information, and space for genuine deliberation, people understand complexity and are willing to engage with difficult trade-offs - but their fundamental values lead them to different conclusions about what constitutes fairness. This provides a more realistic picture for policy-makers than standard consultation, which typically captures initial reactions rather than considered judgments.

The outputs from the process were developed into principles for best practice engagement with communities most affected by grid developments, detailed in the 'People Power' report from Sustainability First, which can be downloaded below.  For a full methodology and research findings from the Sounding Board, download the final report of the process.

Similar public engagement could work for:

• Government departments responsible for energy infrastructure delivery
• Local authorities aiming to deliver zero-carbon local plans or major developments
• Renewable energy developers wanting to understand how to make projects acceptable to local communities
• Any major infrastructure project where public support is essential but contested

Research and authoring a detailed toolkit aimed at local authorities, helping them overcome barriers to support for community energy

The community energy sector in England faces significant barriers securing sites for renewable energy installations, impeding sector growth.  Local Authorities represent an ideal partner, with significant building and land assets, but community energy organisations struggle to be taken seriously as delivery partners by local authorities, and local authorities struggle to understand via what mechanisms they could provide support, even to the most professional community energy groups.

Even where individual councillors or officers are keen to support community energy, they often struggle to secure buy-in from risk averse senior colleagues in procurement, assets and estates teams.

The government-funded Greater South East Net Zero Hub commissioned Climate Guide, working in partnership with Community Energy Pathways (CEP) to produce a toolkit that would help local authorities overcome these barriers.

While CEP drew on their extensive contacts across the community energy sector to arrange a series of conferences, workshops and interviews, Climate Guide's role was to use the outputs of that work, and wider 1:1 contact with key local authority experts, to shape and author a comprehensive guidance toolkit that would  help local authorities.

 This guide offers a framework to local officers and councillors on how to facilitate community-owned solar projects, and also provides a set of editable, local government aligned documents (Decision Paper, Strategy, Motion and Case for Support) that councils can use to kick off and expedite the process of adopting a supportive strategy, and to deal with the main legal and procurement-related barriers that are often raised.  The guide also includes a Partnership Assessment Framework to help local authorities assess the readiness of community energy partners.

The Impact

The Guide has been well received by both local authorities and community energy groups, who have praised it for its clear, pragmatic approach and the detailed, ready-to-use documentation, which goes well beyond the large volume of more generic advice available for the community energy sector.

A video interview on the design and purpose of the Guide can be found here: https://youtu.be/GSjwDIrm4Ic

"It is such an impressive and helpful suite of documents, and so welcome to have this come from and rooted in the  Local Authority perspective. It is literally a plug and play! I also really like the way you’ve managed to convey benefits in a neutral way, emphasising the efficient use of resources - I think that’s a helpful discipline in any Council, but obviously particularly important at the moment." 

Cllr Chloe Turner, Leader, Stroud District Council