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
raise
The future of local power in our hands
The future of local power and why Ethex is ready for it
The UK’s upcoming Local Power Plan (LPP) is an initiative designed to put communities, councils, and local organisations at the heart of clean energy generation. So they can own, benefit from, and shape local power systems rather than relying solely on large private utilities. In short, it’s about locally owned renewable energy for local benefit, a mission close to Ethex’s heart. It is Britain’s first strategic plan, where Great British Energy promises 15 GW of clean power, £15 billion investment and over 1,000 local projects by 2030.
It’s set to be a significant shift in how we deliver our energy transition. Instead of relying solely on large, centralised utilities, the plan aims to scale up community and locally owned renewable energy across the country, in doing so, putting power in the hands of the people who use it.
Ethex, along with our partners, have strongly supported this direction for years. At the heart of what we do is integrating people-powered finance across the UK into the energy system. The benefits multiply in both positive social and environmental impact. This model is proven to deliver cleaner power generation, stronger local economies, more resilience, and crucially, higher public awareness of ways we can reach net zero.
The importance of local ownership
Energy that is generated by, and for, the community is locally owned and therefore unlocks value, from savings to social benefits, that the current system struggles to provide.
Instead of generating siloed profits, surplus funds from the sale of the energy can be reinvested into community benefits, rewilding, conservation, energy advice and fuel poverty programmes. This also means that more of the value generated by energy stays local, supporting jobs and supply chains.
Of course, one of the bigger benefits is the scaling and acceleration of our transition from fossil fuel dependence to a more sustainable way of generating the energy our communities need.
Locally owned power also boosts our energy security, as distributed generation reduces exposure to global price shocks and grid constraints.
Evidence shows that locally owned power also increases public consent, something the UK urgently needs as we build the infrastructure required for clean power and electrification.
The value of blended finance
Ethex has demonstrated with our partners that connecting individual investors with institutional funding can create real value. We believe people-powered investment is an important part of the solution. With government investment due to trickle-down, we see it as critical that community ownership is not replaced by grant dependency but remains inclusive, participatory, and scalable and can remain as a key part of the backbone infrastructure from the bottom up.
Ethex is ready to connect Great British Energy capital with retail investors and partner institutions through blended finance models, creating essential leverage for public money. Our platform has many successful examples of this.
Take Plymouth Community Energy, which was developed with support from Plymouth City Council and has become a vehicle to tackle fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions. Using a blend of patient, council-backed loan funding and a community share offer run on Ethex, Plymouth raised £2.5 million over a series of offers to deliver a city-wide portfolio of solar installations on schools and public buildings.
Another great example is Energise Barnsley, which at the time was the largest joint local authority and community energy project in the UK.
A blended finance model for community energy projects provides cheaper power with no upfront cost to public assets, delivers predictable, long-term returns for citizens and can reinvest surpluses into fuel poverty programmes and home energy efficiency.
In this way, councils and funding partners can add power to crowdfunding and turn renewable energy projects into long-term social infrastructure for place-based Net Zero delivery.
Supporting the UK’s Local Power Plan
As a leading UK impact investing platform, Ethex sees the Local Power Plan as a practical and proven way to accelerate our renewable generation while engendering public participation and trust.
The current UK energy system remains highly centralised, and too many communities are excluded from ownership and long-term benefit. The LPP has the potential to change that by:
- enabling shared and community ownership,
- unlocking private capital,
- driving economic value into communities, and
- helping deliver a just transition that leaves no community behind.
For us, this is not abstract. We have seen what happens when people are invited to invest in the future they want: they show up.
More than a decade of people-powered investment
Through the Ethex platform, our community of investors have already helped raise over £90m for community and impact-driven energy projects and we’re pleased to be able to report that 98% of community energy projects meet financial and impact targets.
People’s passion for supporting impact driven projects is increasing, as we have seen a 78% growth in investor activity in 2025 as well as a record year for IFISA investments.
These numbers matter because they show that there is a strong public appetite to directly support the energy transition when trusted structures exist, and now is the time to scale our actions.
As members of Community Energy England and winners of their 2025 Sector Support Award, we’re proud to help build that financial infrastructure, not as an end in itself, but as a way of enabling communities to act for their own benefit.
Supporting the Local Power Plan
Ethex believes the Local Power Plan can succeed by combining public leadership with people-powered investment. Community shares, ethical bonds and crowdfunding can help these vital projects to come about and grow while supporting shared ownership at scale and improving project resilience and delivery times.
And by blending institutional and retail capital, we can stretch public money further through leverage, a proven model for success. The upshot of this kind of funding is that we will also build public consent through participation and trust.
We’ve already seen this model succeed in places like Barnsley and Plymouth, where council support and community investors came together to deliver local solar generation. Projects like these show what becomes possible when local ambition meets shared ownership.
Planning for the road ahead
To fully realise the promise of the Local Power Plan, Ethex believes three things are critical:
- Stable policy support for community and shared ownership
- Regulation that recognises retail investors as strategic capital
- Alignment between Great British Energy, councils and community finance
With these in place, the LPP will be in a position to unlock a new era of community energy, and this will be scalable, inclusive and financially sustainable.
A moment for optimism
Currently, elements of the road ahead are in action in various ways through various organisations, both private and public, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the Community Energy Sector to join forces and harness the capital being made available efficiently and inclusively across the UK.
Ethex has the proven ability to facilitate this, working with our valued partners and in line with our commitment to Community Energy sector support. Community energy is proof of what happens when people come together to power their own future. With the Local Power Plan, the UK has a good chance to accelerate that movement and broaden participation so that every single one of our communities can benefit from clean and fair power.
At Ethex, we look forward to working with the government, Great British Energy, councils, finance partners and, most importantly, the communities themselves to make that vision a reality.
Get involved
Interested in talking to us about blended finance? Contact melissa.gilmour@ethex.org.uk to arrange a meeting with the team.
Want to join our community of investors? Visit ethex.org.uk and register an account.
Get involved
Interested in talking to us about blended finance? Contact melissa.gilmour@ethex.org.uk to arrange a meeting with the team.
Want to join our community of investors? Visit ethex.org.uk and register an account.
Ethex is proud to have received the following awards
Ethical Consumer Best Buy
Winner, Community Energy Awards 2025
Wealth & Finance Leading Ethical Investments Platform 2025