Work With Us: Landowners or Developers
The involvement of communities in the ownership and operation of renewable energy projects is growing. Landowners looking to develop projects on their land may wish to consider involving the local community in ownership of the project, either through full ownership or through a stake in the project.
Energy4All has significant experience of working with private and corporate landowners establishing community-owned renewable energy projects. We have successfully helped communities own assets or buy ownership stakes and receive financial benefits from large wind turbine sites, and ground-mount solar farms.
See a couple of examples below, and please get in touch below if you have a project in mind as we can send you a more detailed services brochure.
Co-operative Revenue Share
Under this model the co-operative is granted a stake in the developer or landowners project in exchange for a payment to the developer or landowner. The size of the stake is determined by a series of key parameters which enable the financial arrangements to provide members with the opportunity of earning a reasonable average return on their investment. The overall return will depend on the performance of the renewable technology.
This arrangement is simpler compared with owning a portion of the assets, as the risk is spread out. For example, if a community owns a single wind turbine on a 30 turbine site, they will feel the impact heavily if that 1 turbine has issues. If they own a stake in the whole site, they will be impacted by the average performance of all 30.
Energy4All have successfully launched 7 wind co-operatives across Scotland that own stakes in developments by Falck Renewables (later Renantis and now Nadara).
Co-operative Asset Ownership
A landowner who is engaged in their local community and wants to see benefit spread widely may support fully community-owned renewable assets on their land.
The Westmill Wind Farm in Watchfield near Swindon is an example of this. Adam Twine, a pioneering organic farmer of 1,200 acres, approached Energy4All to assist in the creation of a co-operative and produce a public share offer to allow a 5-turbine wind farm to be community owned. The wind turbines have been 100% community owned from commissioning in 2008, generating enough annual electricity for around 3,000 homes. The neighbouring Westmill Solar Farm (a ground-mount solar co-operative) later joined the Energy4All family.
The site has a significant positive impact in the local community, not just through membership but through a dedicated educational charity WeSET (Westmill Sustainable Energy Trust) which the wind and solar farms fund.
For further information and an initial discussion please contact us.