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Westmill Solar Co-operative – the whopper community owned energy project

World’s Largest Community Owned Solar Project http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php main_page=news_article&article_id=3455 by Energy Matters, 7 Nov 12 Last week, Westmill Solar Co-operative in the UK completed the acquisition of Westmill Solar Park, making the project the largest community-owned solar power station in the world.

The £16.5million facility is a 5MW solar farm covering 30 acres and consisting of over 20,000 solar panels.  The power station is located near Watchfield, on the Wiltshire/Oxfordshire border.

Westmill Wind Farm is adjacent to the site, which was also started as a 100% community owned renewable energy project.

In the last year, the solar farm has generated 4,900 MWh of clean electricity, enough to power 1,500 households and avoiding over 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

“Westmill represents the best of what low carbon investment and renewable energy can offer and hopefully will inspire others to realise that when we get together we can make change happen and can engage positively with the threat of climate change,” said founder director Adam Twine.

The Westmill Solar Co-operative  share offer attracted around 1650 investors in just 6 weeks- 50% more than was required.  More than half of the Westmill members live within 40km of the project. Members will be entitled to a share in the profits generated by the electricity sold. Predicted internal rate of return to members is 9 – 11% over the 24 years of the project.

Aside from the environmental benefits and in addition to offering local residents a substantial return on their investment, the solar farm will boost the local economy by making sure the profits stay in the area, encourage tourism and raise the local area’s profile.

“Solar power will become the world’s greatest energy source in our lifetime; heralding a new era of sustainable and ‘democratic’ energy supply,” said Cooperative chairman Philip Wolfe.

“As the success of Westmill shows, solar energy enables ordinary people to produce clean power, not only on their roof tops, but also at utility scale.”

November 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

Community owned windfarms could be good for UK

Windfarms: is community ownership the way ahead? http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/05/windfarms-community-ownership
On the Danish island of Samsø many of the wind turbines are owned by the residents. Is that the way around nimbyism? Patrick Kingsley guardian.co.uk,   5 November 2012 “I can’t single-handedly build a new Jerusalem,” said John Hayes, the Tory energy minister, last week, “but I can protect our green and pleasant land.” What was he on about? Windfarms. He wants them stopped because he says locals don’t like them.

But that isn’t always the case. Take Samsø, a pretty island off the coast of Denmark. In the late 90s, Samsø’s 4,000 elderly farmers were famous for their early crop of new potatoes. Smothering their isolated Eden with windmills was far from a priority.

Yet 15 years later, that is exactly what’s happened. These conservative islanders have installed 11 onshore windmills, while another 10 lie just off the coast. Astonishingly, Samsø is now one of the world’s largest carbon-neutral settlements. To find how it happened, I visited the island this spring while researching my new book, How to be Danish. The answer? Community ownership. Sixteen of the 21 new turbines are owned either by local co-operatives, or by individual farmers. This means that the turbines haven’t been sprung on the locals. Instead, the latter are invested in the former, both emotionally and financially. The excess energy created by the turbines is sold back to the national grid – and the profit creates a handy annual dividend for each local. “There’s money in it,” smiles 66-year-old Erik Andersen, who owns a herd of rare Red Danish cows. “It’s a good investment.”

So wind power doesn’t always alienate locals. Denmark has over 6,000 turbines – 2,000 more than Britain, despite being a sixth of the size. This is partly down to its topography: it’s flat, so there’s a lot of wind. But it’s also to do with how the Danes involve local communities. Around 70-80% of those turbines are co-owned by local groups – little wonder there’s more of them.

Could it happen in Britain? An ICM poll suggests so: while only one in two Britons would back a windmill within two miles of their home, 68% would support one that was community-owned. John Hayes, take note.

November 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

Renewable energy trumping nuclear in Britain

Renewable UK said that last year there were at least 137,000 people involved in the sector, with a further 654,500 jobs in ancillary industries.

Renewable energy will overtake nuclear power by 2018, research says Renewables will provide enough power for one in 10 British homes by 2015 if current growth rates continue Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent The Guardian, 30 October 2012 Renewable energy capacity will overtake nuclear power in the UK by 2018, if current rates of growth continue, and will provide enough power for one in 10 British homes by 2015, according to new research.

The amount of electricity supplied by wind energy alone is up by a quarter since 2010, in a surprisingly good year for the renewables industry. While the government has notably cooled on wind power – more than 100 Tory MPs signed a statement this year opposing new windfarms, and the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, has queried the future of subsidies – the industry has continued to grow, with investment in offshore wind up by about 60% to £1.5bn in the past year. Planning approvals for onshore windfarms also rose, up by about half, to reach a record level, according to the trade association Renewable UK.

Despite the outspoken opposition from many Tory MPs against wind power, there was a rise in the amount of onshore wind capacity approved last year for the first time since 2008. Continue reading →

November 2, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, UK | Leave a comment