Younity has launched the Community Energy Kickstart initiative to help provide funds to kickstart community energy groups’ renewable projects.
The £1.5m Kickstart aims to streamline the process that comes with traditional and prohibitively expensive financing from banks.
It bridges startup costs like buying solar panels or wind turbines, helping green power projects created and run for the benefit of the local community quickly scale – so they can generate more cheap green power for their community.
Kickstart has given its first advance to Bristol Energy Cooperative to help with their 1MW rooftop solar project in Hengrove, South Bristol. The project is based at the Bottle Yard Studios, which is owned and run by Bristol City Council.
Younity is a joint venture between Octopus Energy and Midcounties Co-operative.
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, commented: “Community energy projects are vital in bringing more secure, cheap, clean energy closer to communities who’ll benefit. Launching this initiative will help unleash the sector’s potential and tap into the growing demand for home-grown green power and lower bills.”
Phil Ponsonby, CEO of Midcounties Co-operative added: “This is a significant step in the right direction to help community energy projects get up and running quicker than ever before. This is all about bridging the funding gap for community energy groups to facilitate renewable power projects and create locally owned sustainable solutions.”
Andy O’Brien, Co-founder and Director of Bristol Energy Cooperative, commented: “We’re really passionate about the positive impact of green power on our community. We’re over the moon to have got such affordable access to the funds we needed to build our latest solar community energy project so we can generate more green energy for our community.”