“Back in 1994, renewables were generating less than 2% of the UK’s electricity,” says Matthew Clayton, managing director of Thrive Renewables. Fast forward 30 years and that figure is 50% and rising. As a renewables investment company, Thrive has been at the forefront of the clean energy transformation, funding 42 such projects including some of the UK’s first windfarms.
“During the first five years of projects, the question wasn’t: ‘How many projects could we support?’ It was: ‘Will this work?’” Clayton explains. Work it certainly has, as the milestone of Thrive’s 30th birthday and its portfolio of wind, solar, tidal and geothermal projects attests.
Thrive subscribes to the concept of a ‘just’ energy transition, which is one that sees climate action as fair and inclusive, and that positions ordinary people as agents of change. While that might sound apt for 2024, it’s something Thrive advocated from the start. Its very first windfarm, Haverigg in Cumbria, was created in 1998 in partnership with a community energy group.
