Part ownership of a Ripple Wind Turbine, fancy it?

[Joeboy]

There is also mention of systems beyond No1 WT son, coming in Autumn for announcement.

[nowty]

Ownership now 95%, anyone on here?

Now 96% !

Now 97%, not long to go, will probably finish within a week and earlier than the July 31st deadline.

[Mojomal]

I'm in. Have purchased 1.5 kW which should generate 4kW for us.
Many thanks Joe and Nowty for your advice.
All the best.
Malcolm.

[nowty]

I'm in. Have purchased 1.5 kW which should generate 4kW for us.
Many thanks Joe and Nowty for your advice.
All the best.
Malcolm.

Of course you mean should generate 4,000 kWh or 4 MWh per year.

kW is an instantaneous power output unit and kWh is a quantity unit.

Welcome to the cooperative wind turbine project.

[Mr Gus]

I'm not doubting the integrity of the green / environmentalist investor to push this to completion however I'd like to understand a bit more (if anyone can oblige).

How come he was allowed 25% & was it a temporary holding to be fed back in as people wanted more energy?
Was it an investment he could sell on as a corporate entity with majority share / voting rights et al?

A loan costs, I understand that, & his action should speed up the success of this turbine & those that come afterwards from a welsh govt perspective, so I wish to understand (not condone) his investment, who is he what is his background, is it honestly philanthropic & how does it affect other turbine investment groupings (ie bolted on one account via multiple turbines)
What do ripple intend to do if Octopus simply becomes a victim of investment banking corporate take over & just another power pedlar?

Again, not to antagonise, & nowty doubt has plenty of insight in this area.

[Mojomal]

Oops....sorry

[nowty]

I'm not doubting the integrity of the green / environmentalist investor to push this to completion however I'd like to understand a bit more (if anyone can oblige).

How come he was allowed 25% & was it a temporary holding to be fed back in as people wanted more energy?
Was it an investment he could sell on as a corporate entity with majority share / voting rights et al?

A loan costs, I understand that, & his action should speed up the success of this turbine & those that come afterwards from a welsh govt perspective, so I wish to understand (not condone) his investment, who is he what is his background, is it honestly philanthropic & how does it affect other turbine investment groupings (ie bolted on one account via multiple turbines)
What do ripple intend to do if Octopus simply becomes a victim of investment banking corporate take over & just another power pedlar?

Again, not to antagonise, & nowty doubt has plenty of insight in this area.

The share offer document says that a single cooperative member cannot hold more than £100,000 investment.

With regards to the loan (up to £1.8m), If the returns from the turbine exceeded 5%, we would have been better off with the loan, although returns in the first year would be lower as the loan needs to be drawn down some months before the turbine is operational and therefore before returns are achieved. It benefits Ripple to add more members because of the 5% arrangement fee, Ripple would probably not benefit from any arrangement fee on the loan. But having the loan is not sensible for the members as it adds financial risk so I am in favour of not having the loan if at all possible.

The circa 25% ownership by the Welsh government does not bother me as its via a £1.1m grant to the cooperative company so they are effectively a sleeping partner.

The new “Business Owner” David Evans was already a normal member but Ripple have now stated he is buying a “DIRCT SHARE” of the windfarm, so sounds like outside of the cooperative company. Exactly what the relationship between him and the cooperative company will be, is currently not clear. As he is likely to be a minority shareholder, it does not bother me too much, but he might still have significant influence if he has any ulterior motives.

If Octopus or Ripple goes bust the cooperative still owns and operates the wind turbine, so will have to find some other customer who wants to purchase the power and give returns to the members some other way, like the normal business model of a dividend payment. Ripple believe other power suppliers will want to join the business relationship so future supply changing may be possible. If other power suppliers can make some extra profit out of it I am sure they will.

[Mr Gus]

Thanks for clarifying a few things Nowty, if you hear more, please update the thread hopefully getting more of the same in motion via small investors.
(we are already with Octopus & it would be nice to offload the energy to run a car to start with & build up from there)

Would be nice if there were an initiative for small charities to jump on in form of long term cost reduction / protection "keep the lights on" type energy fundraiser which i'm sure would raise a lot of subsequent knowledge & support, it worked out VERY well for Wood green (Godmanchester) who bought their own turbine back in the mid 80's & a second one a few years back (paid in full)

Mart? what are your thoughts from a charity energy security P.O.V?

[nowty]

The biggest benefit I see about this investment is de-risking any electricity price increases in the future. Once the turbine is running, it will have a largely known fixed cost for its operation over its lifetime. So the cost price of the leccy from it will be low and stable. If leccy prices rise, maybe because of hydrogen use in gas power stations, then the returns increase and compensate for higher leccy prices. The opposite occurs if leccy prices fall so apart from the green credentials, it could be seen as a kind of hedging against future higher leccy prices.

[AE-NMidlands]

@Mojomal, this is a repeat from page one of this thread,
/snip/
Several things have swung in our favour, leccy consumption is increasing, power price forecasts are increasing, inflation is increasing, the lifetime of the turbine is almost certainly understated, and its happening, no maybe's anymore.

Rebates are expected to be circa 4.5p / kWh, not what you use, but what your share of the wind turbine generates. So for example, Ripple say most folk will save 20% of their bill, a bit more if you buy 120%. But that is based on circa 18p / kWh but my average import cost on the Octopus "Go" is not much more than 5p / kWh, so I expect to save practically my entire bill. If it turns out to be more then I can either,

1) Request to withdraw excess credit.
2) Add my gas bill to Octopus and part pay that with the excess rebate.

I look forward to reducing my monthly direct debit to a nominal £1.

Or even 1p.

I think the point is that the actual wholesale cost of electricity is a (smallish) fraction of what most of us pay. So even if we get the electrons at the wholesale rate, there is still the distribution charge and other things to be paid. Their video https://rippleenergy.com/how-it-works explains it at about 1 minute in... I have got a screenshot but can't get it to paste!
So any "profit" on your electricity can subsidise the other costs - or your associated gas bill - if you have one.
A