THE Scottish and Welsh Governments have united to urge Westminster to act on renewable power to stop community projects falling into “hiatus”.

The devolved administrations have written a joined letter to UK Energy minister Amber Rudd warning community energy projects are at risk of failure following the decision to withdraw state support.

Green energy firms have already hit out at the removal of the Renewables Obligation (RO) and the cancellation of pre-accreditation for the Feed-in Tariff (FiT).

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will end support under the RO for onshore wind from 1 April 2016 - a year earlier than planned.

It says it is “minded” to offer grace periods to project with planning permission, an accepted grid connection offer and evidence of land rights by June 18 this year, but no details of the grace periods have been given.

Earlier this month the Solar Trade Association told The National the Tory administration was trying to “pull the rug out” from under the UK’s fledgling renewables developments.

Yesterday Scottish Energy minister Fergus Ewing and Welsh Natural Resources minister Carl Sargeant raised concerns about the impact on community-owned projects and local supply chains.

Calling for “meaningful dialogue”, they said community energy is a “key priority” for both governments and stressed that communities have “invested heavily, in time, money and commitment, in a cleaner energy future”.

They warned the changes could price local groups out of the market, pushing the small scale industry into a “hiatus”.

They added: “The broader implications are likely to include stalling of the community energy sector beyond projects that have been pre-accredited by 22 July, and commensurate loss of local supply chains, and well-paid jobs in the consultancy, delivery and maintenance of projects, leading to increased joblessness and poverty.

“It will also be disappointing to see the demise of the emerging capacity to deliver community share offers, which could have founded a culture of locally raised funding, and of the loss of community understanding of energy more broadly, which is driven by community energy projects, and is fundamental to greater energy efficiency.

“The funding for a wide range of projects supporting locally identified needs, such as fuel poverty, impacting on local cohesion, will also be lost.

“We both see that the future direction for energy is one of local generation and supply, based on renewable sources, and smart storage and local grid management, with significant local benefit.

“The current proposals will significantly damage the prospects for this future.”

Examples of community energy projects in Scotland include a wind turbines plan by Yetholm Community Council in the Borders, a micro wind project at Scoraig Primary School in the Highlands and a solar initiative by Isla of Gigha Heritage Trust.

Ewing said: “Local ownership gives communities more control over their own energy and will help us tackle challenges like grid constraints and fuel poverty – while at the same time sparking economic revival.

“There are many communities who have invested significant amounts of money in renewables schemes and have now found the goal posts have been moved, putting crucial investment and jobs at risk.

“On the Isle of Lewis we have the largest community-owned wind farm in the UK at 9MW. This will generate around £1 million each year for the local community who will decide how to spend that money.

“However, potentially the future of other projects like this could be under threat as a result of the recent announcements by the UK Government, and it will be tragic if these opportunities are lost to future communities.

Ewing added: “We will continue to discuss with the UK Government ways that community schemes with shared ownership can be encouraged under all support schemes and in the meantime, the Scottish Government will continue to support community energy schemes using the powers available to us.”