Community share offers raise over £5.5m in the UK

30 January 2016

Energy4All was formed in 2002 to expand the number of renewable energy co-operatives in the UK as an integral part of our transition to a low carbon economy. Energy4All is uniquely owned by the co-operatives it assists; as additional co-operatives are established they too take a share in this growing organisation.

Recently, four community share offers launched by Energy4All have raised a total of £5.5m. One of these, a 500kW hydro scheme at Rumbling Bridge in Kinross-shire will be the largest community-owned hydro scheme in the UK.

Another project is Edinburgh Community Solar Co-op, which raised £1.5million to install solar panels on up to 25 publicly owned buildings in the city. The energy will be used by the council, helping save nearly a thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

“We’ve been delighted by the public response to our share offer, with more money raised than we were aiming for, despite changes in the UK government’s rules which meant we had to close the offer early,” said Richard Dixon, chair of Edinburgh Community Solar Co-op and director of Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Since its creation in 2002 Energy4All, which is owned by the co-operatives it serves, has raised capital of over £50m for community energy projects and all of its projects have managed to raise the required funding for construction.

Energy4All provides an excellent example of how to run a successful community share offer co-operative.