It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to take such steps as he considers appropriate to promote community energy projects.

In this section—

• “community energy project” means—

  1. a

     the use of relevant plant for a community purpose,

  2. b

     the installation of relevant plant for use for a community purpose, or

  3. c

     the adaptation of any plant for use as relevant plant for a community purpose;

• “community purpose” means the purpose of—

  1. a

     generating electricity for consumption wholly or mainly in qualifying premises, or

  2. b

     producing heat for use wholly or mainly for heating qualifying premises;

• “plant” includes any equipment, apparatus or appliance;

• “premises” means any building or buildings (and for this purpose “building” includes part of a building);

• “qualifying premises” means premises which—

  1. a

     are used wholly or mainly for purposes other than carrying on a trade, business or profession, and

  2. b

     in the case of premises which consist wholly or mainly of a dwelling or dwellings, contain at least five dwellings;

• “relevant plant” means any plant which—

  1. a

     in generating electricity or (as the case may be) producing heat, relies wholly or mainly on a source of energy or a technology mentioned in section 82(7) of the Energy Act 2004 (c. 20) (microgeneration), and

  2. b

     satisfies the condition in subsection (4).