Why renewable energy still finds it hard to connect with consumers – and what businesses should do about it

Renewable energy is booming, with global energy transition investment reaching a record $2.3 trillion in 2025, according to BloombergNEF. But for a sector reshaping the global economy so significantly, it struggles to articulate how it operates, and why it matters to the people it serves and the partners it looks to connect with.  The challenge for renewable energy brands is no longer just awareness. Where the sector truly lacks, is helping audiences make sense of the emerging renewable-led system, building trust and increasing public confidence.  Less than a third of consumers have a good understanding of the core jargon around renewables. Consumers are also increasingly suspicious of green energy messaging, with less than a quarter of the British public trusting ESG claims. Meanwhile, nearly 80% of UK businesses don’t trust renewable energy claims. It is a perception and knowledge challenge that can cause significant bottlenecks for expansion and adoption.  As the sector grows, it brings an increasing level of complexity, misunderstandings and opaqueness – only adding to the mixed messages and mistrust. The companies that can cut through that murkiness with a clear narrative have a real opportunity here. 

Be honest about the journey
‘Renewable’ is not always as simple as it sounds. Providing renewables is hard. Weather conditions, supply and demand discrepancies, storage challenges, all mean that only few providers are truly 100% renewable. To complicate matters further, a licensed energy supplier can purchase Ofgem’s Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin certificates that allow them to legally market their tariffs as ‘100% renewable’, even if they buy standard fossil fuel power from the grid. If energy brands can’t offer verifiable central claims or narratives, then companies can only compete on price – and a race to the bottom cannot fund a transition. Consumers are only willing to support new generation, storage and grid connections if they believe the claim attached to it. The challenge, then, is not only for those 100% renewables firms – those such as Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy and Octopus in the UK – to communicate their USP convincingly, but also for the rest of the market to articulate how it adds value. They need to show the journey toward not just the lofty ambition of a truly ‘green energy’ world: explain where energy comes from, how the mix changes, what role storage plays, why transitional fuel may still be needed – and what the business is doing to move the system forward.  Australian provider Amber is an interesting example of this mindset. The company pulls back the curtain on the grid’s live energy mix, empowering customers to see exactly where their power is sourced in real-time and actively shift their usage to align with peak renewable generation. Similarly to what Wise did in banking, Amber uses extreme transparency to illustrate every step of the way how it serves its customers – effectively acknowledging that they’re on the journey together.

Lead with purpose, not production
The example also highlights the importance of language. Too many renewable energy businesses still tell their story in megawatts, gigawatts and capacity figures. Those metrics are often too abstract – what do they actually mean for people’s daily use? They also don’t offer a reason to care. A stronger brand starts with what the business is enabling: cheaper access to energy, cleaner air, resilient infrastructure, local jobs, energy security or the ability to power new technologies more responsibly. Ørsted energy for example articulates its vision internally through the tagline ‘Let’s create a world that runs entirely on green energy’. To consumers, ‘Love your home’ distils the idea of powering your own home while looking after the planet.  The point is to connect production to human outcomes. “We can make your bills cheaper” is compelling short-term, but long-term value needs to be built on customer stickiness and trust. “We are building the infrastructure that can make cleaner, more affordable energy possible” is a stronger long-term platform that people and partners can understand, remember and support. 

Build trust locally 
A more engaging narrative is especially important as renewable energy is, by nature, local. The energy is produced where it is consumed; it doesn’t travel in the way fossil fuels do. Yet a lot of brand investment is still aimed at the end consumer: the person choosing a tariff, reading a bill or switching supplier. The communities being asked to host the new infrastructure – the wind farms, solar fields, and other assets that make the transition possible – are often missed out. That is a significant gap, because local consent is frequently the real bottleneck to transformation. Brand has a vital role to play here: not as a layer of persuasion at the end, but as a way of building understanding, trust and shared ownership from the outset. It can help articulate the tangible value renewable infrastructure brings to a place: local jobs, education, skills partnerships, investment in community initiatives, environmental improvements and a stronger sense of pride in the infrastructure around them.  Done well, brand can shift the conversation from what a community is being asked to accept, to what it can help create. If people can see how renewable energy connects to their lives, their landscape and their future opportunities, the infrastructure becomes less of an imposition and more about local progress.

Brand as a growth tool
In addition to conveying purpose and fostering local engagement, brand has a crucial role to play in wider business transformation. As the sector matures, many renewable companies are expanding through partnerships, joint ventures, acquisitions and adjacent technologies such as storage, EV charging and data-centre power. Without clear brand architecture, the result can quickly become a fragmented portfolio of projects and product names that make sense internally but doesn’t convey a convincing, unified vision. Here, brand can operate as a form of soft power. If a government, community partner or project owner is choosing between an increasing number of operators, they will start looking at more than just financial terms. Who understands the local market? Who will be a responsible partner? Who has the clarity and credibility to deliver? All questions that are becoming more important as the sector continues to grow. In our work with UAE state-owned renewable energy company Masdar, for example, we supported a comprehensive corporate reorganisation and brand refresh to help it transition from a localised renewable energy developer into a global clean energy powerhouse. Through periods of growth and acquisitions, it is important to align every employee – from parent and acquired companies – behind one brand with a central purpose. The new brand does that, also playing a crucial role in communicating the financial strength of the company through emphasising scale and performance. 

Trust is built in the bad moments
Through all such brand initiatives, it’s crucial to remember that trust is not built by clear vision and claims alone. It comes through consistency – through visual and verbal appearance, but also behaviour. Service design, customer support and transparency in difficult moments can do more for credibility than another sustainability promise. The renewable energy sector needs brands that make complexity understandable, progress believable and participation worthwhile. The companies that will lead the transition will be the ones that earn trust, tell a clearer story, show people how a renewable future connects to their own lives – and bring people on the journey.