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Glossary

 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W  X Y Z      

• B
  
  Business plan – a formal statement of your organisation’s goals and the plan for reaching them. It is used by the management team to guide the organisation and to inform investors and funders. It may also contain background information about the organisation aiming to reach those goals.
• C
  
  Capacity building – enabling individuals, groups and communities to develop the confidence, understanding and skills required to influence decision making and service delivery.
  
  Community benefit – benefits from renewables projects can take the form of cash income, job creation, training opportunities, energy.
• D
  
  Due diligence– the care a reasonable person would take in investigating a potential investment.
• E
  
  Equity – part share ownership of a company.
  
  Evaluation – review of actions to find whether the intended outcomes have been met.
• F
  
  Feasibility study – a study to determine the practicality, strengths and weaknesses of a project and give an illustration of costs.
  
  Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) – The Feed-in-Tariff is a UK Government incentive available to renewables projects under 5MW generating renewable electricity. The incentive is given per kWh produced over and above the selling price and income from the electricity.
  
  Originally, rates for the FiT started quite high and made renewables projects more lucrative. This incentivised many more smaller community renewable projects as they could get a high return for a smaller project. As a result more projects were feasible which increased the number of communities coming forward.
  
  Financial forecast – a best guess of what will happen to an organisation in financial terms over a given time period.
  
  Fund – money set aside for a specified purpose.
• I
  
  Income – monies received from provision of a service.
  
  Incorporated – set up and register a limited liability company.
• J
  
  Joint venture (JV) – partnership between a community organisation and a private or commercial company.
• L
  
  Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) – a partnership in which one or all of the partners does not have liability for the others.
• M
  
  Monitoring – review of the progress or quality of a project over a period of time.
• O
  
  Outcomes – the change or benefit resulting from an activity.
• R
  
  Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) – are green certificates issued by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to operators of accredited renewable generating stations for the eligible renewable electricity they generate. Operators can then trade the ROCs with other parties, with the ROCs ultimately being used by suppliers to demonstrate that they have met their obligation. ROCs are effectively a form of government subsidy for larger renewable projects.
  
  Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) – a payment for generating heat from renewable sources – the equivalent of FiTs for biomass, solar heat panels etc.
  
  Revenue – income generated from the sale of goods or services.
• S
  
  Screening – process of checking against a list of basic requirements.
  
  Social outcomes – the results of an activity on the social fabric of the community and wellbeing of the individuals and families.