Bristol Energy Cooperative, a well-established energy cooperative, has launched a new share offer with Triodos Bank UK that hopes to tap into the growing interest from everyday investors to support green energy generation, local communities and energy independence.
The 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’s 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 Studiosfilm 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.
CEO of Bristol Energy Cooperative, 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 6% per year, 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 there’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.
Important information
Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.
Unlike company shares, withdrawable shares in a society cannot go up in value, but they can go down which means you could lose some or all of the money you invest. You should therefore regard this investment as much as a social and environmental one as a financial one. You should only invest what you can afford to lose.
Investments are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and your capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed. You should always read the offer document in full before deciding whether to invest as it will cover risks specific to an individual investment. You can read more about the general risks associated with making these types of investments here. If you are unsure if any of these investments are right for you, you should contact an Independent Financial Adviser.