Energy sits between infrastructure, politics and public anxiety in a way few sectors can match. Yet the people with the most power to shape a project’s fate – local communities, elected representatives and planning committees – are often the furthest removed from the technical detail. That gap is not a communications inconvenience. It is the central challenge of working in energy, and closing it is what determines whether a project moves forward or stalls.
Geopolitical tension, price volatility and net zero policy have pushed energy to the top of the public and investor agenda simultaneously. The detail, from grid infrastructure to hydrogen repurposing to planning policy, remains technical and difficult for non-specialists to grasp. Translating that complexity is not about diluting the facts. It is about making them meaningful to the person reading them.
Whether the goal is to secure planning consent, attract investment or build public trust, understanding is essential. It also requires the ability to adapt between highly technical, informed audiences and the wider public ensuring messaging is crafted specifically to the people it speaks to.
Start with what matters, not how it works
The most important question in energy communications is the ‘why’. Whether you’re connecting with engineers who want detailed case studies or local communities near a proposed battery storage facility, audiences want to know why it matters to them.
Technical audiences expect accuracy, depth and specificity. If you oversimplify, you lose credibility. Whether that’s methodology, compliance, or project outcomes the detail is the message. For wider audiences, the challenge is different. The same level of detail quickly becomes alienating. Relatability is key for audiences to understand the impact. This is where strategic communications is critical. Being able to adapt messaging while telling the same story is essential.
Take a new offshore wind project. Industry stakeholders will look for installed capacity plans, turbine specifications, and grid integration. The local community, by contrast, will want to know about noise levels, the visual impact on the landscape and local job opportunities. The same project, two entirely different conversations.
The same principle applies across the sector. In a gas-to-hydrogen repurposing project, investors need commercial viability data and a clear regulatory pathway, while workers and local communities need reassurance about jobs and safety. Tailoring communication to each audience’s priorities is what keeps everyone informed and on side.
When we worked with Onyx – a global provider of services to wind asset owners – the challenge was exactly this. The same story needed to land with two very different audiences. We led with an accessible press release for a broad readership, before following up with in-depth thought leadership articles for industry specialists who needed the technical detail. Same message, two very different registers.
Read the full case study here.
Make the invisible visible
Most energy infrastructure is invisible to the public. Oil and gas platforms sit offshore, onshore wind turbines occupy remote hillsides and the mechanisms that balance supply and demand on the grid happen entirely out of sight. Storytelling brings those assets and processes to life through analogy, comparison, imagery and videography. For audiences who want to go deeper, data points and schematics provide the supporting layer.
Data builds credibility, but people create connections. One of the most effective ways to translate complexity is through human storytelling: putting the engineers, planners, and technicians behind a project front and centre. It doesn’t replace the technical detail. It makes it worth reading.
When communication fails, projects pay for it
The consequences of poor energy communications are rarely abstract. A planning inquiry derailed by local opposition, a judicial review triggered by communities who felt excluded from consultation, a political intervention prompted by media coverage that went unanswered. These are project risks, measured in months and in money.
The energy sector has no shortage of examples where technically sound projects ran into sustained, organised resistance, not because the project was wrong, but because the communication was too little, too late, or aimed at the wrong level. Getting ahead of that requires treating communications as part of project development, not something added on before a public exhibition.
The media is not just another audience
Journalists occupy a specific position in energy communications that differs from any other audience. They translate your messaging and transmit it further. A technically accurate briefing can become a misleading headline within a news cycle. That is not always bad faith, it is often the result of tight deadlines, sub-editors left to do the finishing touches, and limited specialist knowledge.
Managing that chain of interpretation, being available, plain-spoken and proactive with the media, is a distinct skill from briefing engineers or addressing a community meeting. It also means that what you do not say publicly is as consequential as what you do. Silence in a fast-moving story is rarely neutral.
A strategic advantage, not just a communications task
As the UK’s energy transition accelerates, the ability to communicate complex infrastructure effectively separates projects that build broad support from those that stall. Projects that are well understood, by both expert and non-expert audiences, are more likely to gain approval, overcome opposition and maintain momentum.
For communications professionals working across the energy sector, this requires collaboration, adaptability and the confidence to hold a complex story together across very different audiences. The question is never whether to simplify. It’s knowing how far to go, and when to stop.
GO BIG
OR go home
