• Swindon & Wiltshire Eco
• Wednesday May 15 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Bristol Energy Cooperative teams up with Triodos Bank UK for £1 million share offer

Community-owned renewable energy supplier Bristol Energy Cooperative has launched a new share offer with Triodos Bank that hopes to tap into the growing interest from everyday investors to support green energy generation and energy independence.

The £1 million share offer is Bristol Energy Cooperative’s tenth raise, and it’s the first time that the organisation is working with Triodos Bank UK. The share offer will be available on the bank’s crowdfunding platform.

Bristol Energy Co-operative was established in 2011 with the aim of building community-owned energy infrastructure.

Over the past 13 years, it has invested £13.4 million in 20 solar and battery projects online with a total peak capacity of 12 megawatts, and directed £400,000 into community projects.

Its most recent projects include rooftop solar installations on the newly refurbished Bristol Beacon music venue and The Bottle Yard Studios film and TV studio facility.

With this latest crowdfunding campaign, the organisation aims to raise £1 million, which will allow it to keep developing innovative new clean energy projects and add an additional 1MW of solar energy to its portfolio.

These projects will power nearly 300 homes over 25 years, saving 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and directing an estimated £130,000 into community projects through revenue.

Bristol Energy Cooperative CEO Helen Martin said: “We’ve come a long way since launching Bristol Energy Cooperative, and in that time the need for a cleaner, fairer energy system has only increased.

“That’s why we’ve got big plans to scale up our work to help meet the many challenges our society faces head on, and we need investors help to achieve these ambitions.”

“Our investors will be actively helping to tackle the climate emergency, increase energy independence and strengthen local communities.”

Minimum investment in the crowdfunding offer is £100, with a maximum investment amount of £100,000. The target interest rate is six per cent per year, but the actual rate paid will depend on Bristol Energy Cooperative’s performance.

Whitni Thomas, head of corporate finance at Triodos Bank UK, added: “We’ve been a proud supporter of community energy for many years, and are pleased to be working with Bristol Energy Cooperative as such an innovative organisation in this area.

“We find that the investors using our crowdfunding platform really ‘get’ the purpose and drive behind community-owned renewables, so we expect that they’ll be plenty of interest in support for this share offer.”

In 2018, Triodos was the first bank to launch a crowdfunding platform in the UK. The bank has a history of working with community-owned renewable energy projects and has raised over £28 million for a range of community energy organisations and projects across the country.

Pictured: Bristol Energy Cooperative staff on a rooftop

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