Britain’s community energy champion – Younity – is celebrating five years of supercharging grassroots community energy projects. A joint venture between Octopus Energy and The Midcounties Co-operative, it has quickly become a powerhouse representing over a third of the UK community energy sector.
Younity has led the way in accelerating the sector’s growth, purchasing power from 100+ community-owned schemes, with 300 agreements in place, and generating green power for more than 60,000 homes.
To turbocharge the growth of new and existing projects making a positive impact in communities, it launched several initiatives to unlock funding.
Its ‘Community Energy Kickstart’ provides loans for construction costs – and enabled Bristol Energy Co-operative to install the UK’s biggest community-owned solar rooftop project.
Its ‘Powering Communities Fund’ has provided funding to support and amplify over 20 projects, from clean energy education, skills training for green jobs and more.
In addition, Younity’s tech innovation like its ‘Community Energy Connect’ online platform has brought together hundreds of people to share expertise and grow the sector.
Andy O’Brien, Co-founder of Bristol Energy Co-operative (southwest of England), said: “We’re over the moon to have got such quick access to funds needed to build our latest solar community energy project.”
Dan McCallum, Director of Awel Aman Tawe (Wales), said: “Schools are so keen to have access to good materials on climate and behaviour change – thank you to Younity for giving us this boost.”
Sarah, Director of Barnet Community Energy (London), said: “I was introduced to a whole network of people working in community energy. With their support, this led me on a journey to starting ‘Community Energy Barnet’, with big ambitions to cover the rooftops of Barnet with solar panels. Thank you, Younity!”
Building on these successes, Younity is now looking to further expand in the Midlands and the North of England, where it plans to double projects by 2030.
Community energy has delivered £4.4 million of bill savings through energy efficiency and advice since 2020*. Through this expansion into more regions in the UK, Younity will bring the social and economic benefits of community energy to even more people.
This comes as the sector is on a major growth trajectory, with the Labour government’s Local Power Plan aiming to invest £1 billion into local energy projects a year.
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation, said: “Younity has become the champion for community energy in such a short space of time. It’s amazing to see the positive impact these green energy projects have on so many people – and we’re looking forward to bringing these benefits to more parts of the country.”
Pete Westall, chief values officer for The Midcounties Co-operative, said: “The work Younity has done over the past five years has been exemplary and we’re proud to have supported it, alongside Octopus Energy, throughout that time. Community energy is a major way for this country to tackle fuel poverty in the areas most in need of support and we look forward to being a part of this journey for years to come.”
