We’re launching our crowdfunding soon, the time to act is now!

Be part of the local energy revolution and help make EFA real!
Environmentally Friendly Alternatives
The Plan:
We’ll help people make sustainable change while creating cheap, green energy for their communities.
The Idea:
We’ll provide software that manages local microgrids so they provide cheap, green energy directly to people’s homes.
The Proposition:
Our software will make the process of setting up a project easy, administer energy subscriptions to recover its costs, and can fix the cost of energy over time.
Because the gap between the cost of energy from suppliers and the cost of renewables over their useful lifetime is so big (e.g. solar panels can last up to 25 years) we are confident of making 50-70% savings with all costs covered. If the price of energy keeps rising, those savings will get bigger.
As well as a local microgrid to provide electricity, we’ll also provide energy efficiency solutions like insulation, technologies like heat pumps, help households switch to electric boilers and much more.
Timeline

About the EFA team
Our C-Level has experience across all the key operational, development and commercial roles in the Cloud Computing and servitization models EFA’s local energy model is based on Infrastructure-, Platform-, and Software-as-a-Service.
The team is qualified in a host of different areas such as Environmental Technology, Energy Policy, Urban Sustainability, Chartered Accountancy, Resilience, Electronic Engineering, ITIL, and Software Development, amongst others.
Our plans for a Pilot Project involve all members of the EFA team. While we’d love to share details of our amazing team online, current employment commitments mean we can’t.
We plan to make new hires when we have reached our funding target and will keep everyone updated when we do!
About the Founder
I’m Rupert Nelson. I grew up in South London, went to a grant maintained comprehensives (‘state’) schools, travelled a little, worked a lot, and am now a dad approaching middle age (39 to be exact!).
I founded EFA because I realised that Climate Change, probably like many new or recent parents and grandparents, means leaving a world (at least one that’s worth living in) is going to be a bigger challenge than ever before.
Until the early summer of 2019, I was living what could be described as a ‘normal’ life, with a family, career in software, even a mortgage (thanks to my shrewd wife’s property searches!); probably a fairly conventional existence.
Then, a new climate report (Existential Climate-Related Security Risk; see here) got me thinking that continuing inaction might be a risk to my little girl: not acceptable.
Description: Rupert and daughter, Keira. Keira is the inspiration to start EFA, as well as inspiring Aiofe, EFA’s #ACTEFA Campaign Mascot!
A bit of background to EFA
In late 2017/early 2018, while thinking of things like home improvements, a sales experience with a solar installer gave me an idea: to do what I thought he was offering.
Basically, they got to pitch because they said I’d save money on energy bills … but it turned out, with their model, that wouldn’t happen until some many years into the future, with a short term cost increase … NOT what I was looking for.
But, I knew that the return on investment numbers made economic sense. If I could buy solar panels it looked like I’d have free energy for the rest of their “useful life”, after 5-7 years (most good solar panels last 20-25 years, so that’s 13-20 years of bill-free energy!). But … the problem was, I didn’t have 6 or 7 grand!
So, what I thought was on offer is what EFA will do: EFA will provide electricity from renewable technology in exchange for people paying down its cost over time. Because the return can be made in 5-7 years the repayments could spread the cost and provide the energy for a low cost (up to 70% according to our recent calculations).
So we now just need to connect a microgrid of networked homes to share the proceeds of “behind the metre” renewable technologies (electricity) in monthly subscriptions.
With this idea rattling around my head and inspiration to do something for the environment (again), I studied for a prestigious MSc, and then pulled together a team of people to answer the biggest outstanding issue for climate action: Who’s going to pay?
EFA answers like this: who’s willing to pay less?!
The story so far & why we’re crowdfunding
EFA was founded in November 2020. Since then, we’ve seen pandemics, a spiralling cost of living crisis, and war mentioned in the same breath as electricity …. not to mention the ominous threat of climatic disaster.
You might even think “what have you been doing, there’s a climate crisis … get this thing out there!” … and you’re not alone … but for all the talk of innovation, it seems to be extremely difficult to get noticed as an innovator (especially, it seems, when the idea is disruptive).
When Innovation leaders say they can’t help because their backers want to “stick with the status quo” and local government leaders withdraw support for your CO2-busting solution because they need a strategy for net zero … you can’t help thinking that the disconnect between reality, and humanity’s response to it, is endemic for decision makers everywhere.
To be the business EFA needs to be (and to break free from the status quo!) we need support from people who want us to make access to cheap green energy a reality for everyone. Help EFA to show people everywhere, now, and in the future, that we did something about the problems our planet is facing.
VISION
A GLOBAL COMMUNITY. The future is interconnected by people united around real shared outcomes.
HOMES IN NATURE. Homes that create value for people and don’t harm nature
ENERGY INNOVATION. The cost of renewable energy should only be associated with its provision.
SOCIAL COLLABORATION. People working together can create the outcomes they need.
HAPPY PEOPLE. Achieving a sustainable world is necessary, but so is making it inclusive, fair and joyful.

MISSION
SUSTAINABLE LIVING. Humanity has walked into a disaster; sustainability is the only answer.
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT. People, when they can, will act. We make it our mission to ensure they can.
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS. Technology has answers to sustainability, but solutions come from people applying it.
RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS. Value must be shared to be sustainable.
ETHICAL INVESTMENTS. Make money work for social good: seek ethical returns ad infinitum.

“ YOU NEVER CHANGE THINGS BY FIGHTING AGAINST THE EXISTING REALITY.
TO CHANGE SOMETHING, BUILD A NEW MODEL THAT MAKES THE OLD MODEL OBSOLETE ”
– Buckminster Fuller