When you go through our expert advice section we ask you the question, "When it comes to the energy transition, where would you like your projects to fit?". On this page, we explain some of the challenges of choosing projects in any phase of the technology maturity cycle. The three phases we consider are:

1. "Bringing new ideas to life", which matches with immature technology, often when it is being hyped up and made exciting but before the costs have come down, the performance of the technology has been improved and the best applications have been identified. Examples are the buzz around vehicle to grid technologies or gravity storage.

2. "Getting good ideas adopted", where community energy groups and governments play a strong role in supporting the uptake of technology and helping communities feel comfortable with new approaches. Many rooftop solar projects were pioneered by community energy groups before business models were standardised, more profits became available in each project, and competitive markets caught up with the trend.

3. "Making sure everyone gets to participate", occurs once widespread adoption is underway but harder to reach markets are left undeveloped. This is particularly the case with disadvantaged households missing out on the cost-saving from rooftop solar.

Each phase has its challenges. Below are tips for community energy groups exploring projects in any phase:

Bringing new ideas to life

Many energy technologies that might help solve the challenges of surplus rooftop solar and electrification of heat and transport will be community scale technologies. Communities are ideal partners for innovators. Sometimes you will have unique circumstances that make the innovation extra valuable in your community and the innovator will be eager to showcase their technology with you.

• Be clear about what you bring to the project and why the innovator and innovation needs you. Communities play an essential role in raising the level of support for a project, identifying great locations for showcase projects and finding alignment - ie making sure the project produces what the community values.

• Let the innovator take the financial risks but lend your support to grant applications and additional support from governments.

• Look past the hype and manage community expectations with a clear understanding of the technology risks. Your reputation will be sullied by project failures unless everyone is clear at the outset about the risks of innovation.

• Ensure the project promotes your community, trying to make sure the story is always your version of the story.

• Ensure that everyone gets a chance to learn from the project outcomes.

• Look for business models that could provide long term benefit to your community but don't expect that projects will always be profitable.

Getting good ideas adopted

Once technologies are proven and start to be valuable, there are still barriers to adoption:

• Knowledge - people simply don't know much about how it works, why its a good idea, whether it will be valuable to them and how to go about incorporating the technology in their home or business.

• Financial - Access to capital can be a barrier for community organisations and businesses that prioritise their savings for their core purpose. Lenders can be unfamiliar with the technology and so the price of borrowing is higher.

• Practical - How to assess feasibility, get quotes, find independent and trustworthy advice and take the steps to get started.

Community energy groups and governments can help tackle all of these barriers by offering information and financial support to new technology and by inventing project delivery models.

Our explainer on financing and project on advice for ownership alternatives showcases some of the many ways community energy groups have supported technology adoption.

Making sure everyone gets to participate

Communities tend to be concerned about who gets left behind in the energy transition because energy poverty can have adverse affects across any community. Surplus solar is reducing in value every year so it makes sense that everyone should be able to benefit from cheap renewable energy. Many of the reasons people get left behind are known as market failures:

• Information failures - Many people simply don't know enough about the opportunities and how to go about changing the way they use energy.

• Tenant / landlord failures - Much energy consumption is determined by the equipment and building structure that has been designed, owned and delivered by someone other than the energy user.

• Short term priorities - Some people cannot find the time and energy to focus on whether a longer term change will be beneficial.

• Capacity - Some people are not in the right position at this moment to make financial commitments or careful judgements about changing the way they use energy and need support to act.

Community energy groups are well positioned to work with governments and to invent delivery models that overcome some of these market failures. These projects can be hard work that rely on a combination of volunteering, charity and government support but are an essential part of reaching your whole community and building longer term prosperity and resilience.