Unlocking Community-Led Finance for Gigawatt-Scale Renewables
The UK faces a fundamental challenge in financing its transition to clean energy: how can communities genuinely own part of the clean-energy transition, not just symbolically but in ways that give them real influence and long-term economic benefit?
The need for new models of ownership and participation has become increasingly urgent. Add to this that large-scale energy projects are still owned and developed far away from the communities they affect most, leaving local people with little say and even less financial return.
Project Collette offers an answer. It sets out a practical financing model for a community-led offshore wind farm off the Cumbrian coast, a model that brings community, public and private investment together on fair and equal terms. The key components of the model have been proven over two decades of community energy development, but Collette pairs them with new FCA crowdfunding regulations, Public Offer Platforms (planned for 2026), which open the door for large-scale infrastructure to raise capital directly from the public at appropriate stages. This combination could herald a new golden age of community-owned infrastructure mirroring the publicly funded projects of the Victorian era that we still rely upon today.
Instead of treating community ownership as an add-on, Collette places it at the centre of the project structure, governance and value creation.
Why We Need a New Model
For years, community energy has been held back by a persistent assumption that local people cannot or should not take on early-stage development risk. This belief has shaped how the sector operates, welcoming communities only once construction is complete, long after most of the project value has already been created.
The result is familiar. The financial upside of major renewable projects has remained with utilities, large developers and foreign investors, even though many citizens are willing to take higher risks for higher potential returns, provided those risks are clearly explained, and appropriate safeguards exist.
At the same time, two parallel systems have emerged: traditional community finance, which is local, democratic and small-scale, and regulated crowdfunding, which is larger, scalable, but not democratic. Each has strengths, but neither has been able to support nationally significant infrastructure. Community finance is too small, and regulated crowdfunding lacks long-term community stewardship.
Collette brings both systems together for the first time.
A Community Anchor at the Heart of the Project
At the core of Collette’s Community Integrated Investment Model (CIIM) is a Community Benefit Society (CBS), a democratic, mission-driven organisation owned and led by local people and the community of investors. The CBS acts as a founding investor, raising early capital and ensuring community priorities shape development from day one. This positioning matters. Early-stage community ownership anchors legitimacy, ensures the project’s purpose extends beyond profit, and supports long-term local value as the project progresses.
Pioneer Shares: Citizen Angel Investment
To begin fundraising, Collette’s CBS will issue Pioneer Shares, a form of high-risk, high-impact community investment specifically designed for seed-stage development. These shares are:
- withdrawable
- held by early supporters
- structured explicitly for development-stage risk
- aligned with the CBS’s statutory purpose of community benefit
This first phase is about local vision, democratic governance and initiating value creation that begins and stays, with the community. Pioneer Shares will be promoted using the same well-tested safeguards applied to high-risk UK crowdfunding, making it clear they are suitable only for investors who fully understand and accept the potential for capital loss. Those who participate become, in effect, “citizen angel investors” supporting the creation of a transformative local asset.
CIDCO: Mission-Aligned Development
Alongside the CBS sits the Development CIC (CIDCO), an asset-locked, mission-aligned development vehicle that brings in specialist partners and development-risk capital. CIDCO provides:
- a clear structure for specialist investors and grant funders
- a way to bring in early-stage capital through recognisable financial instruments
- a golden share for CBS, ensuring enhanced community control
- a mechanism for capturing early-stage value to seed a long-term community wealth fund
Together, the CBS and CIDCO form the foundation for the joint venture that will ultimately construct and operate the wind farm. This structure preserves community leadership while enabling participation from expert developers, public bodies and mission-aligned investors.
Opening the Door to the Wider Public
One of Collette’s key innovations is its staged approach to public participation. Different investment pathways are created at different points in the project, allowing broad participation without compromising investor protection.
- Pioneer Shares (CBS): for highly committed local investors shaping the project from the start.
- Early-stage investment (CIDCO): for individuals and institutions able to take on development risk via notes, convertibles or ordinary shares.
- Regulated crowdfunding at major milestones such as Final Investment Decision (FID) and Commercial Operation Date (COD), using:
- ISA-eligible bonds
- Public Offer Platform (POP) rounds
- Community Municipal Investments
- Broader community share offers
This creates an accessible, transparent and risk-appropriate pathway for everyone who wishes to take part, without pushing people into financial decisions that do not suit their circumstances.
A Model with a Democratic Heart and Serious Financial Muscle
By combining the legitimacy and democratic strength of community finance with the scale of regulated crowdfunding, Collette creates something neither approach could achieve alone.
The CBS provides:
- democratic ownership
- mission stewardship
- deep community legitimacy
- long-term local wealth building
Regulated crowdfunding provides:
- clear risk signalling
- FCA-regulated disclosure
- access to mainstream investors
- scalable construction-stage capital
Together, they form a structure capable of raising large-scale capital for nationally significant infrastructure, without losing community control or community benefit.
A Community Finance Blueprint for the UK’s Energy Transition
Collette is more than a wind farm. It’s a blueprint as to how infrastructure can be funded, owned and governed by the community. It shows that the UK’s clean-energy transition does not need to be driven solely by large developers or central institutions. Instead, it can be co-created with communities, with local people acting not as passive observers but as true partners, investors and long-term beneficiaries.
By blending innovative financial tools, democratic ownership and mission-aligned development, Project Collette illustrates how community power can drive the shift to net zero, and how the economic benefits of that transition can stay in local places for generations.
By Bruce Davis, Director, Green Finance Community Hub CIC, Co-Founder, Abundance Investment.
For more information, see Collette’s Finance Guide (2025) – here. 
