High Winds Community Energy Society approached Thrive in 2017 in need of funding to enable local people to take ownership of Mean Moor wind farm in Cumbria. High Winds Community Energy Society is a collective of three community energy cooperatives – Baywind, High Winds and Energy Prospects. Our role was to provide the speed and certainty required by the commercial vendor to get the deal done. We provided a loan via our Community Energy Funding Bridge, plus expertise and advice for the communities involved alongside  Energy for All. In July 2017 the three cooperatives took control of Mean Moor wind farm and were able to pay back £4 million of the £7.4m bridge loan very quickly the same year through crowdfunding.  The group repaid the remaining bridge loan by 2020, using a number of sources including profits from the operational wind farm.  Mean Moor is the first commercial scale wind farm in the country to transfer from a commercial developer to 100% community ownership with the help of our award-winning Community Energy Funding Bridge (CEFB).