Xela Energy was founded with a singular vision: to redefine how large-scale energy users access clean, reliable, and cost-effective power. We’ve come a long way since our founding, from funding and growing our organisation, to building a world-class team, securing land, rebranding, and delivering our first wave of renewable infrastructure projects.
Our journey so far has led to the creation of a cost-competitive, land-led, Enterprise Independent Power Provider (EIPP) with a vision for the future of green energy in the UK and beyond. What started as a bold idea – just a business plan and a conviction – has grown into a fully funded, technology-agnostic energy infrastructure platform. Today, we’re delivering renewable energy solutions at scale and reshaping the way enterprise power is developed, owned, and operated. We’ve grown from a bold idea into a scaled enterprise. We’ve raised institutional capital, and we’re executing our vision.
Let’s talk about that vision and how we got here.
The Vision
At Xela Energy, we believe that, if our energy is unsustainable, so too is our existence.
This is a pivotal moment for the global energy industry. On one hand, energy users need reliable access to cost-competitive energy; on the other, the need for a dramatic decarbonisation of global energy generation systems is essential to securing our future as a species. We believe that the answer to both these problems is the same.
Macroeconomic disruptions have conspired to drive worsening energy pricing instability, while growing demand has fuelled a wave of growth from industrial-scale power consumers in the data centre, manufacturing, life science, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Due to this turbulent environment, the UK’s largest energy users — including organisations in the data centre, life sciences, defence, food & beverage, and hydrogen sectors, as well as freeport occupants and transport hubs — can no longer rely on the grid to consistently deliver affordable energy. Britain paid some of the highest prices of any country in the world for electricity over the last year – cutting the output of energy-intensive manufacturing industries by a third since 2021. The largest power consumers around the world need access to energy that is not only reliable, but cost-competitive and insulated from unexpected market volatility.
Xela Energy makes renewable power an undeniable part of the answer to these industry-wide challenges. We offer large-scale energy users access to clean, reliable, and cost-effective power, delivered through Private Wire renewable energy infrastructure that we develop, build, and operate. We enable customers to reduce carbon emissions, lower costs, and secure long-term energy certainty without the burden of up-front capital investment.
The Journey
We launched in 2022 under the name Clean Energy Capital with one goal: to establish credibility by delivering, not just promising. With no land, no customers, and no operational projects, we raised £3 million based on the strength of our vision, our experience, and our belief that large scale energy users needed an answer to increasingly complex challenges.
That early trust from investors enabled us to move quickly and decisively. We secured land positions, assembled an experienced and passionate team, and built our internal systems to scale from day one. From the outset, we invested in CRM platforms, HR infrastructure, and scalable governance frameworks. We acted like a 50-person organisation before we had five people, knowing how much institutional investors care about your ability to deliver your business model at scale.
Eighteen months after our seed round, early backers reinvested with another £2.5 million, giving us the confidence and credibility to approach institutional capital. With the support of CBHH, we pitched to over 40 funds in one of the most challenging capital markets in recent memory. Ultimately, we partnered with True Green Capital, a U.S.-based investor aligned with our long-term vision.
The result: a significant equity raise – one of the largest renewable raises in the UK in 2023.
This raise wasn’t easy. It was built on relentless execution, a committed leadership team, and a culture that put the mission above individual comfort. Our senior team took half salaries for eight months. We lived and breathed the raise while still delivering on project and pipeline milestones. We emerged stronger for it – and able to fund up to 750MW of renewable power.
Since then, everything has changed, except for our mission.
Post-investment, Xela Energy have expanded our team across every core discipline: in-house legal, land acquisition, planning, development, project management, operations, and more.
We’re no longer in startup mode; we’re institutionalised. With mature governance, robust systems, and a growing pipeline of private-wire renewable energy projects, we’re positioned to disrupt the energy sector and deliver the solutions our clients need.
Central to its approach are Renewable Energy Service Agreements (RESAs), which enable our customers to fix pricing for 15 years or more, shielding them from unexpected energy price spikes. Projects are funded and built off-balance-sheet, preserving customer capital for core growth activities and, unlike rooftop solar projects, we develop renewable power infrastructure at an industrial-scale, producing power systems for the UK’s largest electricity consumers, exactly where they need it.
Our Rebrand: Evolving the Business
With growing customer adoption and a host of new sites in development, the decision to rebrand our business reflected our transition to the next stage in Xela Energy’s evolution. Our new identity also marks the shift from startup to scale-up phase — raising capital, securing land, and building a team of passionate industry experts — to delivering large-scale energy projects for customers as a fully institutionalised Enterprise Independent Power.
Xela Energy reflects who we are today: agile, enterprise-ready, and technology-agnostic.
Every employee is a shareholder. Everyone’s success is tied to the company’s success. That alignment has created a culture of ownership, speed, and excellence. We promote from within. We trust our people. And we’ve built what many call the best land team in the market. While others start with customers and scramble for sites, we start with land. It’s what allows us to move faster, and deliver sooner.
Our “land-led” approach represents a paradigm shift for the industry. When it comes to building new renewables infrastructure, most organisations in the industry begin with customer relationships, attempting to secure a commitment from those customers, then develop infrastructure to support them. It’s safer (and slow). Using the expertise of our world class land team, as well as our energy industry professionals, Xela Energy can make an “educated bet” about the locations where major energy users will need power. This dramatically accelerates timelines and strengthens our negotiation positions. This approach gives us a 12–18 month head start on our competitors. In a climate of increasing construction constraints, regulatory friction, and supply chain challenges, this lead time is a critical operational advantage, especially for data centres facing explosive growth in power demand.
Today and Tomorrow: Looking at the Road Ahead
Xela Energy is in the process of developing a 5 megawatt (MW) solar development, approximately 500 metres from IBM’s research and development data centre complex in Hursley – a deal which will deliver the first major data centre powered by private wire renewable energy in the UK. When active, the facility will generate almost 5 million kWh of energy annually, saving the equivalent of c. 46,000 tonnes of CO2 or planting c. 60,000 trees over its lifetime.
It’s a big milestone for us. We reached it quickly and we’re not planning on slowing down any time soon as we focus on our objectives for the future:
- Building out a resilient, land-led pipeline
- Maintaining a track record of delivery
- Institutionalising our platform to scale globally
Throughout growth, institutional funding, and the process of building a team that can change the face of renewable energy in the UK and beyond, Xela Energy’s mantra remains firmly unchanged:
“If our energy is unsustainable, so is our existence.” We believe it, we live it, and we’re just getting started.
— The Xela Energy Team