BUSINESSES and other organisations in the Liverpool city region can apply for grants worth up to £500,000 for renewable energy projects.

The £4m Rural Carbon Challenge Fund and project is being delivered by advisory bodies Envirolink Northwest and the Energy Saving Trust.

Those bodies are now seeking expressions of interest from rural-based charities, social enterprises, community groups and microenterprises before the end of May 2010.

A microenterprise is an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 people and whose annual turnover does not exceed 2m euros.

Launched in February 2010 at the Northwest Climate Change Conference, the fund aims to improve the diversification of the rural economy and develop new partnerships at a community level.

The £4m funding has come from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The project is being led by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA).Š

Its chairman Robert Hough said: “The Rural Carbon Challenge Fund represents the agency’s commitment to creating a low carbon regional economy that utilises the energy sources most appropriate for each locality.”