An interesting organisation that among its other activities funds renewable energy projects in the UK.

Social and Sustainable Capital is a London-based organisation that provides funding for charities and social enterprises in the UK.

Its funds include the Community Investment Fund, the Third Sector Investment Fund and the Reach Fund. Its funding covers a range of sectors including “Citizenship and Communities”, “Employment, education and training” and “Health & Wellbeing”.

Social and Sustainable Capital is itself funded by a mixture of funds including Big Society Capital – the investment bank that invests in programmes with a social good that was the brainchild of former Prime Minister David Cameron. Other prominent backers are Social Investment Business and Santander Bank.

Of interest is their “community energy” programmes. As the name suggests these are programmes that work to help provide renewable energy to local communities while also tackling the issue of fuel poverty ie people unable to meet the costs associated with heating and powering their homes.

Its projects include the Bristol Energy Cooperative, a plan to help provide energy to people in Bristol through the development of a solar farm. SASC in this instance was part of a consortium that included Triodos Bank, Bristol City Council, the Power to Change foundation and a consortium of small shareholders. The project as a whole saw £4.3 million committed.

Other projects include the Plymouth Energy Community and Resilient Energy Mounteneys Reneweables.

In total SASC has invested £9.2 million across five community energy projects, generating power for 14,500 homes.