Ripple Energy wind farm?

QrizB

Swan_Valley said:

Rate now confirmed by Ripple for the 1st year of generation:

"Even bigger bill savings: 9.5p/kWh in the first year

We're sure you are all aware that the wholesale cost of electricity has gone up substantially in recent months. We are very pleased to let you know that we have secured a price for the first year of generation that reflects that trend. We had communicated to you in September last year that your savings were projected to be around 8p for every kWh generated by your share of the wind farm. We can now confirm you will now receive about 9.5p saving on your bill per kW/h. This means that a member whose share of the wind farm generates 2,900kWh will get a saving of about £275 on their bill in the first year. That is more than triple the expected first year saving when we first launched the coop share offer! "

However, start date now predicted to be 1st week of March.

"Graig Fatha switch on date: first week of March"

That's good news for WT1 members

The current Ofgem cap is around £720/yr for that typical 2900kWh/yr electricity customer, so £275 is almost 40% saving. Or put another way, it should just-about offset the April cap increase.

NoobSolar

Someone should invite them on here because the webchat we had with them last night said that current savings were now more likely to be 4p per kwh. I have paid my £25 but the narrative seems to be very changeable. I am interested even at 4p a kwh, but only if I can change energy company. Otherwise it is just a monetisable business trick waiting to happen.

Petriix

NoobSolar said:

Someone should invite them on here because the webchat we had with them last night said that current savings were now more likely to be 4p per kwh. I have paid my £25 but the narrative seems to be very changeable. I am interested even at 4p a kwh, but only if I can change energy company. Otherwise it is just a monetisable business trick waiting to happen.

I find the language of 'savings' to be misleading. It's a share of the profits, applied as credit to your bill and has nothing to do with the energy you use at home.

I find it highly likely that a wind farm will turn a reasonable profit over its 25 year life. As members of the cooperative we actually have a reasonable degree of collective autonomy about how it is run so it's unlikely that we would be stuck with a poor value supplier. 

NoobSolar

I agree with the first point (which is why I said I would be interested even at a 4p rate) but I disagree with the second point. As to collective autonomy, as I understand it, you wouldn't be able to change supplier in any circumstances and that is not an aspect of the autonomy you mention. I would love clarification on this.

I think what we have here is truly remarkable and potentially totally groundbreaking if - and only if - it can become a new model whereby anyone with any provider can do it. Is Robert Llewellyn listening? I would love his perspective too as he brought this to our attention.

TCA

From memory of my brief reading of the Co-op rules document for WT1, it said if you changed supplier your co-op membership would cease. That being the case (and it gave other examples) it said your shares would be refunded.

Ripple also stated somewhere recently that they will be revealing new suppliers for WT2. It was phrased in a way that said there would be new options. Not just that they were looking.

Verdigris

Ripple also stated somewhere recently that they will be revealing new suppliers for WT2. It was phrased in a way that said there would be new options. Not just that they were looking.

If those suppliers still exist, after the recent shenanigans. However, I suspect they may well be the "full-fat" green suppliers, who are all (when I last looked) still with us, if a little pricey.

TCA

What I saw was written in the last week. Can't recall where I saw it but it wouldn't have been referencing any defunct suppliers.

Obviously any new supplier will be one that wants (and can afford) to buy x amount of renewable energy and whose billing system can take the required modification and it's a change they're willing to make.

Ripple won't necessarily be able to partner with the cheapest on the market and that's to be expected, but I'm sure partners will be need to be reasonably competitive. I don't foresee Octopus suddenly becoming ultra expensive.

Verdigris

What I saw was written in the last week. Can't recall where I saw it but it wouldn't have been referencing any defunct suppliers

That's good to know. I was going by a statement in one of their videos, from some months ago.

Reed_Richards

It seems to me what we have here is an inferior version of a very old model viz:

• You buy shares in a company. 
• If the company makes a profit you get a dividend.
• If you want out you can sell your shares

The difference with Ripple:

• Instead of dividend you get money off your electricity bill.  This seems to me to be an unnecessary complication to avoid a tax on the dividend that you probably wouldn't have to pay anyway.
• There isn't a market for the "shares" so if you want out you may have difficulty getting any money back. 

TCA

I don't view it as an investment vehicle as such. To me it's a way of hedging your electricity expenditure, something you'd be spending money on anyway. Nothing more than effectively fixing the wholesale electricity part of your bill at cost. If I wanted a proper investment I'd buy shares in Vattenfall or the likes.