ELSA

As the need for energy security grows and climate goals become more pressing, it’s clear: we need to shift towards renewable sources – and wind energy plays a vital role in that transition. But wind (and other shared space projects) also raise valid local concerns. The real challenge isn’t “community engagement”; it’s understanding – and bridging – the gap.

AT PACE isn’t just better engagement – it enables smarter governance: building trust, reducing risk, and creating supported projects that can withstand the pressures facing today’s energy transition and deliver better futures for all.

The business case for collaborative renewable energy projects: understanding and addressing the community-related root cause for project failures; and how to deliver faster, fairer, better projects

Most communities support renewable projects, but oppose how they are built - often, a process that bypasses local realities and weakens shared purpose. Collaborative design strengthens fairness, cohesion, and local futures.

For authorities and policymakers, AT PACE is the smarter governance innovation: protecting legitimacy, easing pressure on the planning system, and accelerating the national energy transition.

ELSA's Co-Design revolutionises renewable energy projects by enhancing community-developer relations, ensuring project acceptance through stakeholder collaboration and empathetic strategies.

Developers and governments fear community empowerment in renewable energy co-design due to risks of lost control, higher costs, and project delays. Effective, transparent engagement strategies are essential to bridge these divides.

At the core of the Earning Local Support Academy (ELSA) is a new mindset, a powerful set of skills and the opportunity to create a successful, inclusive and sustainable future for everybody. ELSA does that through a process called Smart Engagement which delivers Smart Projects: projects that are financially successful, technically sound, environmentally compatible and socially supported. Projects that are wanted by all stakeholders.

Renewable energy is quickly becoming part of our lives and the landscape we live in. This means many lives are directly being impacted by renewable energy developments and more and more will be in the future. In a growing number of cases these developments get rejected by the host communities, by the people who will have to live with the development. The reason for this is often miscommunication and a lack of proper engagement. ELSA will provide the tools and support to build a bridge between the developer and the members of the host community.