Rhianydd (Rhi) Griffith first heard about Repowering London when she attended an investor event Repowering London ran in 2023. She had long been interested in community energy and financing place-based climate projects and had been working with the London School of Economics (LSE) to write a piece on how it could be done. At the event Rhi met members of Repowering London, other institutional investors, and advisors interested in making a tangible impact in communities. The group spit-balled how to attract more private finance into the community energy space.
Rhianydd Griffith is Repowering Finance’s newest board member
Jump forward to today, and Rhianydd is the newest board member of Repowering Finance. Repowering Finance’s revolving credit facility, developed by Repowering London, accelerates the speed and scale at which community-owned solar power can be installed across London. So far, it has supported the installation of two solar projects in Hammersmith & Fulham and Newham, producing a total of 0.92MWp solar electricity.
Repowering Finance’s model works like a revolving door. A £1.5 million loan facility from lenders Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Trust for London is used to install solar panels on community buildings. After the panels are up and running, funds are raised through a community share offer, bringing the solar panels into community ownership, and then paying the lender back. The model supports Repowering London’s work across the capital.
Repowering Finance was key in installing solar panels on East Ham Library, now owned by Community Energy Newham
Repowering Finance is set to grow
Rhianydd is excited to be joining the board at an exciting time: “It’s now about moving past proof of concept. The team has seen the first lenders come on board, completed the first asset installations, and we have already begun the first asset transfers to community groups. It’ll soon be about doing it again, and again, and again – and bigger”, she says.
“Repowering Finance is effectively moving from start-up to scale-up"
From Rhi’s perspective, one of the things that can help Repowering Finance grow and work with larger institutional investors in the future, is putting in place the kind of structures, controls, procedures and robust foundation needed to manage scale. “Repowering Finance is effectively moving from start-up to scale-up,” she says, and to support this transition she is contributing her background in large-scale institutional investment.
After starting her career as a funds and finance lawyer, Rhianydd spent nearly 10 years in the infrastructure investment team at Federated Hermes, investing in and managing infrastructure (including large portfolios of rooftop solar) on behalf of UK pension schemes. She has also worked for regional public-private consortia including West of England Industrial Cluster in Avonmouth and held the position of executive director at start up project developer, 7CO2. She brings her skillset to a very experienced set of directors David Fuller, Timothy Stumpff, William Heath, Joe Shamash and Ashley Seager whose backgrounds span from asset management to investor perspectives.
The move to net zero
Rhianydd’s interest in community energy has been years in the making, from brainstorming with like-minded peers to supporting the development of financial acceleration at Repowering Finance. Behind it is a passion for the sector: “If people – ordinary people, like you and me – are not involved in, benefiting from and supportive of the energy transition, it won’t happen. And it has to happen, because the world needs it to happen…”
"There’s an exciting opportunity now to enable local people to have a greater voice."
Local people contribute their voice at a Repowered Community steering group in Newham
Repowering London’s mission is for communities in every town and city to be empowered by clean energy by 2030. Rhianydd welcomes the boldness from Repowering London to not back away from what can be done to tackle climate change. “There’s an exciting opportunity now to enable local people to have a greater voice, a bigger role, and benefit more economically from a transition that’s absolutely essential for our climate and environment”.