Partnership Application

SEAI will establish a partnership with a total of 6 local authorities to deliver an SEC in their County in collaboration with community stakeholders. Dundalk is the first SEC and was established in partnership with Louth Local Authorities. The additional five SECs will be selected through a competitive selection process by 2015. This process will be delivered over two application Rounds.

Round 1 Call for Proposals:

SEAI will invite local authorities to engage in a two-stage competitive process to select exemplar local authorities to work in partnership with SEAI to deliver an exemplar Sustainable Energy Community in their county.

The selection process for the round 1 call for proposals is summarized in the following diagram:

In brief all submissions should:

• Be led by a Local Authority with senior commitment from County Manager
• Be supported by a statement of intent from a mix of private and public organisations
• Identify a geographic area – a potential sustainable energy zone
• Demonstrate an understanding of establishing energy targets and monitoring
• Demonstrate a track record in delivering cross-sector / partnership projects
• Demonstrate added value to the community / area

Prior to the call being formally issued, SEAI requested that local authorities register their interest in applying to be an SEC Programme Partner by the 21 March 2011. Communities, who registered their interest, were invited to attend a workshop that assisted in the development of Round I application.

Stage I of the application process is now complete. 14 submissions from local authorities were received and a shortlist of five local authorities were invited to proceed to Stage II. Shortlisted applicants are:

• Dublin City Council
• Galway County Council
• Kerry County Council
• Roscommon County Council
• South Dublin County Council

The selection of the exemplar SECs will be announced on 17 October 2011 along with a launch event for the SEC Network.

SEAI note the extremely high quality of all applications received in Stage I. A significant investment of time and effort was evident across the board. SEAI would sincerely like to thank all applicants and highly commend the commitment to strong leadership demonstrated by the local authorities to deliver Sustainable Energy Communities.

SEAI are establishing an SEC Network that will continue to provide tools, supports and knowledge transfer to support the delivery of sustainable energy communities across Ireland. SEAI will be inviting Stage I applicants to take a leading role in the Network and will be in touch in the near future.