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Dec 2025
As the green transition gathers pace, attention often gravitates toward large infrastructure and national systems, while a quieter shift is taking place at the local level. Across towns and neighbourhoods, communities are beginning to generate, share, and own their own renewable energy. From Denmark, the startup Orklys is building the digital tools that make this grassroots energy model viable, scalable, and fair.
Across Europe, the conversation about the green transition often drifts toward megaprojects: offshore wind farms, national grids, and large-scale solar developments. But James Powell believes the future of clean energy may look radically different, and far more local.
As co-founder and CEO of the Danish startup Orklys, Powell is betting on a simple idea with transformative potential: that ordinary people, neighbourhoods, and small towns can generate, share, and own their own renewable power.
“There’s a huge will in communities to take control of their energy future, to keep economic value local, and to build something together,” Powell says. “But the barriers are enormous. Most communities are building their first-ever renewable energy project and the complexity can be overwhelming. That’s exactly what we’re solving.”
Before launching Orklys, Powell spent years inside the UN system advising senior leaders on innovation. The work put him close to the world’s toughest challenges but also showed him the limitations of top-down approaches.
“Communities want ownership, transparency, and empowerment. They don’t want to feel they’re being ripped off, or that energy decisions are made far away from them. Energy communities are a response to that frustration and a huge opportunity for the green transition” Powell explains.
Orklys was created to give these communities the digital infrastructure they need: an end-to-end platform that helps citizens plan, finance, and operate shared renewable energy assets. Whether it’s five neighbours sharing solar panels or an entire town co-investing in a wind turbine, the goal is the same: accelerate the decentralisation of energy.
Orklys’ process begins with planning, where communities need clarity on demand, feasibility, and cost. Using open energy data, historical prices, and local consumption patterns, Orklys’ AI quickly assesses whether a project is viable, which business model fits, and how it should be structured for success.
Orklys pairs AI with deep human expertise. Nicolai Fabritius, the company’s Chief Project Officer and co-founder of Orklys, brings years of experience building energy projects at Vestas. On ambitious projects, Fabritius provides hands-on support that transforms what is possible.
“The combination of human and AI is what matters,” Powell explains. “Nicolai’s domain expertise ensures our work moves from theoretical to buildable. The AI lets us scale that knowledge across multiple projects simultaneously. Neither human or AI alone is enough to scale but by putting them together, we plan to unlock a new wave of energy communities.”
Crucially, Orklys refuses to rely on AI for tasks it is inherently bad at.
“LLMs are bad at math. It’s in the name. They’re language models, not math models,” Powell says with a smile. He explains that Orklys therefore builds the algorithms themselves:
“The AI extracts information and our code does the calculations. That’s how we ensure reliability.”
After planning comes the financing stage, which often stops projects before they begin. Banks are cautious, and early-stage capital is difficult to obtain.
As Powell puts it: “Traditional financing models extract enormous value over time. We help communities keep their cost of capital down and bring in innovative financing models that actually work for them.”
Finally, when a project is up and running, Orklys digitises and automates the operational tasks that would otherwise overwhelm volunteers. The platform matches buyers and sellers of locally produced energy, distributes revenue among members, tracks usage, and issues bills in a seamless process. The result is a digital backbone that makes community-owned renewable energy easy to manage and far more accessible than ever before.
Powell is quick to credit Denmark for making Orklys’ model possible.
“Denmark’s digital infrastructure is fantastic. Energy usage data is publicly available. Pricing is transparent. And MitID gives us secure identity management without reinventing the wheel,” he says.
With APIs providing access to smart-meter data and years of historical prices, Denmark gives Orklys a unique foundation for modelling and automation. And culturally, Powell adds, trust in digital services is crucial when you’re dealing with energy bills, sensitive data, and community investments.
Yet Denmark isn’t perfect. Permitting is still slow. European directives encouraging faster approvals for energy communities remain only partially implemented.
“The political rhetoric is good, but there’s room for improvement,” Powell notes.
At the same time, Powell emphasises that strong digital foundations alone are not enough to secure long-term competitiveness.
“In a global competition for talent and investment, framework conditions matter enormously. Competitive and predictable policies, including taxation, are not just fiscal instruments. They are strategic tools that shape where companies choose to build and scale.”
One of the most promising and politically important segments for Orklys is Europe’s farmers. Pressured by global markets, environmental regulations, and volatile prices, they are increasingly seeking new income streams.
Powell sees community energy as a natural fit: “Farmers can diversify, share risk, and create revenue while giving their community cheaper, cleaner energy,” he says and adds, “I’ve seen farmers go 50–50 with the community on a wind turbine, or supply energy to local homes under a PPA. It only works if they want their community to benefit too.”
Community involvement also reduces opposition.
“People protest less when they’re part-owners,” as Powell puts it.
As Europe races toward energy independence, Orklys represents a model built for expansion. Open data ecosystems like Denmark’s exist in parts of the Nordics, the Netherlands, and (to some extent) the UK, markets where Orklys sees its next steps.
But Powell is realistic: “If a country has digital registries but doesn’t let anyone use them, it’s impossible to build a service like ours. Access to data is essential.”
On the other hand, the European venture ecosystem, he says, has been welcoming.
“It has been surprisingly easy to build support for Orklys in Denmark, raise funds, and find collaborators,” Powell says.
Energy communities could become one of Europe’s most promising climate tools. They reduce grid strain, cut costs, create local value, and accelerate renewable build-out. But they’re complex, unless citizens have the right tools.
That’s where Orklys hopes to change the equation.
“Transparency is the foundation of everything. People want to understand what they’re paying for. They want control and fairness. And if we can give them reliable tools powered by open data, they can build their own clean-energy infrastructure,” Powell says.
In Powell’s vision, Europe’s next great energy revolution won’t come from national utilities.
It will come from the people.
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