Sustainable and community energy projects face external change much more keenly than other ventures seeking social investment. Technological advances in solar, wind turbine, and battery technologies, combined with rapid falls in solar panel prices, work broadly to their advantage.
However, changes to Feed-In-Tariff rules and investment tax rules present ongoing challenges.
Success stories
There are a variety of success stories of communities coming together to fund:
- Solar panels on local schools and community centres
- Anaerobic digestion projects
- Community-owned wind turbines
Structuring environmental investments
I For Change has experience structuring community share offerings and loan facilities for environmental enterprises, navigating the regulatory complexities of energy investment alongside the social investment framework.