Case study: Financing England’s biggest wind turbine

Case study: Financing England’s biggest wind turbine

April 16, 2022

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Commercial context

Thrive Renewables provided £4 million in funding for a new 100 % community owned wind turbine near Lawrence Weston, Bristol, UK, developed by Ambition Community Energy CIC. The 4.2 MW, 150 m tip height wind turbine will be the biggest in England.

Set up as a community interest company, Ambition Community Energy was born out of Ambition Lawrence Weston – a Bristol-based charity established in 2012 by a group of residents. All profits from electricity sales will be reinvested back into the local area.

LiveDiligence was used by Everoze to deliver technical due diligence services to Thrive Renewables and support Ambition Community Energy to achieve bankable construction contracts.

Benefits delivered by LiveDiligence

  • Interactive online reporting and Q&A resulted in quick and effective collaboration between the advisor, developer and lender.
  • LiveDiligence enabled all parties to see what was important and what was holding things up – helping everyone focus on what mattered most.
  • Ambition Community Energy was able to review and respond to the due diligence queries in context with the due diligence review – saving time and energy by avoiding the need to juggle multiple Q&A sheets and report iterations.

User experience

Andrew Garrad, Director, Ambition Community Energy

‘The platform was a big help with this transaction. Clear prioritisation of open points and easy Q&A response really helped us push the transaction forward – I’m impressed!’

Monika Paplaczyk, Investment Director, Thrive Renewables

‘I love how LiveDiligence supports all transaction parties to work together more effectively, as one transaction team. We took an innovative approach when it came to financing this project, so it was important for Thrive that it was structured in a bankable way. The LiveDiligence tool was particularly helpful in making sure we achieved this.’

Photo: Visualisation. Courtesy of Ambition Community Energy