Ceredigion County Council website

WSRID Phase 2 explored how rural and agricultural communities can decarbonise while managing increasing demand on constrained electricity networks. The programme brought together public bodies, industry, academia and rural stakeholders to develop practical, whole-system solutions grounded in real-world conditions.

Rather than focusing on a single technology, Phase 2 examined how decentralised energy generation, flexible energy use and digital tools can work together to reduce pressure on the grid while supporting farming, forestry, rural businesses and local economic growth.

• HARVEST (Centre for Energy Equality and partners) – Developed a socially inclusive, community-led energy model through a Social Virtual Power Plant (SVPP), designed to share benefits across rural communities and provide local flexibility. The project also delivered a demonstrator in Llanidloes with Ynni Cymru funding.
• Water to Water – RuraVolt – Delivered a user-friendly digital feasibility tool enabling farms to assess on-farm smart energy options, including renewables, storage and green hydrogen. The tool is now live for Welsh dairy farms and can be accessed at https://watertowater.co.uk/ruravolt/
• Challoch Energy – VREM Cymru (Devil’s Bridge) – Explored the use of curtailed wind energy to produce green hydrogen, supporting the decarbonisation of forestry and timber operations - an economically important but hard-to-decarbonise rural sector.
• Lafan – Developed a proposal to utilise excess livestock nutrients through anaerobic digestion and biochar production. Slurry would be dried on-farm and transported to a central hub, with energy generated either injected into the gas grid or converted into electricity for storage and grid use.