The way people power their homes is continually changing – not only the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, but also in the amount of control they have over the plant they get the electricity from. Communities and customers can now get involved in renewable energy projects by owning a share of the company to reduce their overall yearly electricity bill.
One such project – the first consumer-owned wind farm in the UK – is the Graig Fatha wind farm in South Wales. It consists of a single Vensys 100 2.5MW turbine that will come online in early 2021. The co-operative that owns it is the UK start-up company Ripple Energy, but 2,000 customers will be able to buy in on the company to co-own the turbine and join this groundbreaking pilot project. Ripple plans to launch more projects like this in the years to come.
Ripple Energy founder and chief executive (CEO) Sarah Merrick said:
What could be better than owning a bit of a wind farm to supply your home with renewable, low-cost power. People are ready for change. They want to create a better, cleaner future and we can enable them to do it. The move to a zero-carbon world opens up completely new ways of doing things. You can’t own a bit of a coal or nuclear power station to supply your home with electricity, but you absolutely can own a bit of a wind farm. A huge change is now possible, and people are embracing it.
To get the electricity from the turbine to its owners’ homes, Ripple is partnering with energy suppliers Co-op Energy and Octopus Energy. People who are not customers of either company can switch to Co-op Energy to join the scheme.
Co-op Community Energy managing director Tom Hoines said:
Co-op Midcounties have been working with Ripple for a number of years, and we at Co-op Community Energy are thrilled to continue to support their first site at Graig Fatha. The partnership with Ripple is a significant milestone in changing the way in which we power the UK, giving more people the opportunity to directly own how their electricity is generated. As the leading supporter of renewable, community-generated power in the UK, Co-op Energy, and Co-op Community Energy is now working with more than 80 community generation projects, providing expertise and ensuring that generators are paid a fair price. Making a positive difference is fundamental to our cooperative values and we’re proud that anyone joining Ripple will be helping to decarbonize the planet while supporting local communities, not just at Graig Fatha, but across the country.
The upfront cost for a household will be around £1,900, but people can choose to own as little as £250 worth if they want. The full price will supply 120% of their annual electricity needs (the smaller sum 12.5%) for 25 years.
Customers will still have to pay an electricity bill, which includes fees for taxes, levies, and grid charges. There will also be arrangements and management fees charged by Ripple and the co-operative. However, the total cost will mirror the low and stable operating cost of power from the wind farm, not the wholesale market price. Meaning, in an average year, a household can expect to see a 26% cost reduction to their bill. Furthermore, the company says that it could be as much as 75% cheaper to own a small part of a large-scale wind farm than investing in rooftop solar.
Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson said:
Affordable investment in your own clean, green wind farm is a huge leap forward for the energy grid of the future. Investing in more renewable energy and powering your own homes when the wind is blowing can end our reliance on dirty fossil fuels faster than we hoped. We’re excited to get to work with Ripple Energy to make this investment more accessible and affordable than ever before. Soon anyone can benefit from the ‘green dividends’ this will provide, offsetting their own energy bills with an investment in the energy grid of the future. We’re proud to be championing community energy projects such as these and leading the way in innovative solutions to the climate crisis.
Now while Graig Fatha may be the first customer-owned wind farm, it’s not the first time customers are being allowed to get involved in a renewable energy project. For example, there’s a non-profit called Repowering London that specializes in community-owned renewable energy projects.
The organization facilitates the investment of community solar power projects where the solar panels are installed on the rooftops of apartments. Its mission is to empower communities to “fund, install and manage their own clean, local energy.”
Last year Repowering London’s Co-CEO Agamemnon Otero told CNBC’s Sustainable Energy:
…solar panels on social housing, where communities come together in one vote, one share co-operatives, and share in the energy savings and reductions and also in the idea that they are making a direct impact on global climate change.
Local projects like this that are de-centralized help cut carbon dioxide emissions and also fight fuel poverty while providing employment and training opportunities for communities.
Otero said:
Generating a collective responsibility starts with education. It doesn’t matter about ethnicity or financial income, it matters about how do you connect with… fundamental things like energy, or water, or food. And that’s what this is about. It’s … learning about the benefits of solar but through that finance, IT, technical, legal, media, and marketing elements, of coming together as a cooperative and then installing and owning that energy.
And it isn’t the only organization doing this sort of thing; there are several. Another one is the Brighton Energy Cooperative, which has 623 members and has developed 62 community energy projects already.
Massive wind farms and solar parks may be vital to saving the world, but smaller local projects have an equally significant impact on people and the planet.
