The company was first established by Triodos Bank in 1994 as ‘The Wind Fund plc’. This was a response to the Chernobyl disaster and recognition of wide public interest in renewable energy. The fund aimed to enable ordinary people to invest directly into the development of renewable energy projects in the UK. In 2004, we became Triodos Renewable Energy Fund, which changed to Triodos Renewables plc in 2009. In 2016, we became independent of Triodos Bank, and rebranded the company as Thrive Renewables.
Over the last 25 years, our investor community has grown to over 6,000 individuals, organisations, and institutions. Thanks to them, we have grown our impact by building or funding the construction of 25 renewable energy projects, the majority of which we still own and operate. In addition to wind and hydro, Thrive has invested in solar PV, geothermal, ground source heat and the early commercial scale tidal generation capacity. In the last quarter of a century, we have generated over 1.7TWh of clean electricity – enough for 1 million UK residents – avoiding the emission of 768,063 tonnes of CO2e emissions.
Our inclusive approach allows us to offer a variety of flexible investment options to renewable energy projects seeking capital. Our commitment to true sustainability offers a degree of resilience to changes in government legislation.