Community projects vary a lot in scale, complexity, and level of technology maturity. Smaller, easier projects such as rooftop solar on community buildings promise quick wins and can help a group find it's feet. Larger and more ambitious projects need more time, capacity and resources. They may involve more risk.

Assessing your ambition and preferences and comparing these to your resources can help you decide what sort of project to do.

These are some steps:

• Define your goals: decide clearly what you aim to achieve. For example, do you want to reduce carbon emissions (e.g. net zero emission), increasing energy efficiency, increase renewable energy uptake, or enhance energy access and affordability.

• Scale of your project: Decide whether you want to include the entire community (large scale), only parts of it (which parts and who) (medium scale) or just individual buildings (small scale). Consider factors such as available resources (good wind speed or solar penetration), community size, energy demand, and potential impact.

• Consider the maturity and existing experience with your project idea/ technology: Assess whether you want to initiate new projects from scratch, participate in ongoing projects, or collaborate with established initiatives. Evaluate the benefits and challenges associated with each option.

• Consider technical complexity: determine your community’s appetite and comfort level with technical complexity and if you have the required skills and knowledge to pursue

• Community engagement and participation: Consider whether you prefer projects that involve active participation and decision-making by community members, or if you prefer initiatives that are primarily led by experts or organizations.

• Review financial situation and funding opportunities: understand the community’s appetite to invest in the project up-front or if there is a preference to seek funding or financing options.

• Explore Partnerships and Collaboration: Consider whether you prefer to work independently or collaborate with other organizations, community groups, or experts. Assess the benefits of partnerships in terms of knowledge sharing, resource pooling, and leveraging collective expertise.

• Consider conducting a feasibility study: to assess the technical and economic viability of your project. Unless you have the technical expertise on the team, you will need to do this with the assistance of an expert, so you may need to raise funds to pay for it.