The hunt for practical renewable energy sources is now more important than ever, but it’s not easy for those startups who want to find and refine them. Sourcing finance is often difficult in any business, no matter how ethical and sustainable your model may be, so Mongoose Energy wants to help out those green energy organisations that currently have a wall blocking their way.
“We believe hosting our own crowdfunding platform will make it easier to innovate and grow”
The ambitious company is doing this through establishing a unique crowdfunding platform called Mongoose Crowd, constructed purely to assist companies building, developing and designing renewable energy sources.
We caught up with Mark Kenber, CEO of Mongoose Energy, to find out how Mongoose Crowd came to exist. He tells us, “we realised there was no dedicated, FCA-regulated crowdfunding platform focused on community energy in the UK.
“Until recently, Mongoose Energy raised money for community projects on third-party platforms, but we believe hosting our own crowdfunding platform will make it easier to innovate and grow: offering more investors a wider portfolio of projects to invest in, ISA-eligibility, and target returns that are expected to beat the interest a typical savings account will offer.”
Applications are open now! Mark urges any green energy company who may be interested in the platform to get in touch at crowd@mongoose.energy.
Fuelling the future
In its time, Mongoose Energy has powered the community ownership of a lot of renewable generation assets. Mark says, “Data from a new report by Community Energy England (State of Community Energy) suggests that Mongoose Energy currently manages about one-third of England’s community energy assets by capacity.”
“Innovative community-driven energy projects will have a home at Mongoose Crowd”
A multitude of groups will benefit from this pioneering crowd platform. Mark explains the aim is to encourage the realisation of profitable community-owned green energy projects: “from community groups looking for funding to help them build or looking to take renewable energy projects into local ownership, to energy efficiency programmes or even micro-grid projects, innovative community-driven energy projects will have a home at Mongoose Crowd.”
And, of course, everyone will benefit from affordable renewable energy sources in the long run. Mongoose hopes the funds they create will be invested into local environmental schemes. Yay to saving the planet!
Soaking up the sun
We’re running out of excuses to not ditch non-renewable sources, especially ones like the UK ‘doesn’t see the sun’. Mark tells us about the impressive work going on nationally: “There are more than 1,000 community energy groups in the UK, from working on rooftop solar programmes that supply energy to the local primary schools, to large 5MW grid-mounted solar projects that generate hundreds of thousands of pounds in income per year.
“We want to be the first choice for these ambitious groups across the UK; helping spark new investor interest in community energy projects and redistributing better value from the UK’s growing clean energy economy to investors, communities and consumers.”
Image credit: BWCE Oldfield Park, BEC
Thanks to Mark for taking the time to talk to us. If you’re a green energy company based in the South West or anywhere in the UK, get in touch with Mongoose at crowd@mongoose.energy. You can find out more info from Mongoose Energy’s website or keep up to date with their latest news by following them on Twitter here: @MongooseEnergy.
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