Abundance said it aimed to work with “at least 20 communities across the UK next year” to help grow the UK’s renewable energy capacity and ethical investment market. Projects financed through the new ‘shared ownership’ scheme are expected to deliver investment returns of between seven and 10 per cent, the company said. The shared ownership service is being launched on the back of the Government’s UK’s Community Energy Strategy, which aims to see communities sharing in the ownership of their local renewable energy projects such as wind and solar developments from 2015. It comes at a time when onshore wind projects are finding it increasingly difficult to get planning permission in England and it is less attractive to invest in large-scale solar projects due to withdrawal of Government subsidies.