Bristol Energy Cooperative has launched a new share offer in collaboration with Triodos Bank UK.
This initiative aims to attract everyday investors interested in supporting green energy generation and local communities.
This is Bristol Energy Cooperative’s tenth fundraising effort and its first partnership with Triodos Bank UK.
The share offer will be available on the bank’s crowdfunding platform.
Founded in 2011, Bristol Energy Cooperative has invested £13.4 million in 20 solar and battery projects, achieving a total peak capacity of 12 megawatts.
Additionally, it has directed £400,000 into community projects – recent projects include solar installations on the Bristol Beacon music venue and The Bottle Yard Studios.
The latest crowdfunding campaign aims to raise £1 million to develop new clean energy projects and add an additional 1MW of solar energy to its portfolio.
These projects are expected to power nearly 300 homes over 25 years, save 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, and direct an estimated £130,000 into community projects.
Investors can contribute a minimum of £100 and a maximum of £100,000.
The target interest rate is 6% per year, dependent on the cooperative’s performance.
Chief Executive Officer of Bristol Energy Cooperative, Helen Martin, said: “We have 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.”
Whitni Thomas, head of corporate finance at Triodos Bank UK, added: “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.”
