Ripple Energy wind farm?

thevilla

As I see it:

Shares in Greencoat et al is buying into existing infrastructure and has no immediate environment benefit.

Shares in Ripple's co-op is funding new infrastructure.

Am I being too simplistic?  I've already put money into Ripple so purely academic for me.

QrizB

thevilla said:

As I see it:

Shares in Greencoat et al is buying into existing infrastructure and has no immediate environment benefit.

Shares in Ripple's co-op is funding new infrastructure.

Am I being too simplistic?  I've already put money into Ripple so purely academic for me.

You're right, although Greencoat et al are supporting the market for "pre-owned" wind farms and allowing developers to move on to their next development.

You can think of Ripple as a self-build project while Greencoat are landlords buying finished properties from Wimpey. (Not a perfect analogy but the best I can come up with right now.)

Exiled_Tyke

QrizB said:

thevilla said:

As I see it:

Shares in Greencoat et al is buying into existing infrastructure and has no immediate environment benefit.

Shares in Ripple's co-op is funding new infrastructure.

Am I being too simplistic?  I've already put money into Ripple so purely academic for me.

You're right, although Greencoat et al are supporting the market for "pre-owned" wind farms and allowing developers to move on to their next development.

You can think of Ripple as a self-build project while Greencoat are landlords buying finished properties from Wimpey. (Not a perfect analogy but the best I can come up with right now.)

I tend to agree but it is a bit more complicated.  Any investment in the industry is investment, supporting the industry and freeing up funds for future growth. And also consider that Greencoat has continued to grow itself, raising both debt and equity finance. Therefore investing in Greencoat is not always buying shares from another shareholder but often investing new money into the company.  I don't see either Ripple or Greencoat as being ethically or morally superior to the other. They are both using investors funds to support growth of RE and that's a great thing. 

QrizB

Exiled_Tyke said:

I don't see either Ripple or Greencoat as being ethically or morally superior to the other. They are both using investors funds to support growth of RE and that's a great thing. 

I think we can all agree (on this subforum, at least) that that's a great thing!

mgfvvc

Reed_Richards said:

I'm pleased to see that the share price of Greencoat UK Wind has increased by about 10% since I bought some shares.  You don't see that benefit with Ripple Energy - although of course the share price could easily go the other way.  It was this thread that drew my attention to UK Wind.

The payouts from Ripple's first wind farm Co-op are significantly higher than the initial predictions, so you do see a benefit from higher prices, just in a different form.

paul991

i see ripple as a chance to help something get off the ground which if wasn't the cooperative idea might never of happened where as other investment i have are  just that .a gamble.hopefully now the first farm is generating we can see how good a investment it is

70sbudgie

I also anticipate that a successful purchase of Kirk Hill will speed up the next Ripple project. I believe that there will be several "stagnant" wind farm projects that now have the financial motivation to be developed given the current electricity prices. 

70sbudgie

I also located where I found the 9.5p/kWhr from - the Ripple FAQ.

Do the savings take into account the current high price for electricity?
Your wind farm savings are applied to your bill once the wind farm starts operating. For Graig Fatha the electricity price was agreed in late 2021, so the savings of 9.5p/kWh for the first year of operation do reflect the current high prices. Kirk Hill won't start operating until late 2023. The lifetime savings of 4.3p/kWh reflect the difference between the Government's long term price forecasts, not the current prices, except that we have slightly increased the expected price in 2024. If prices remained at the level expected in the April - September 2022 price cap period, your savings would be 14.6p/kWh, three times the level set out in the quote.

pochase

Update email today:

Kirk Hill update - pre-construction is well underway

Kirk Hill's share offer will close midnight 3rd May. Due to a recent surge in new member interest and in conjunction with corporate and bank funding, we are on track for the purchase to complete on time. We strongly advise members who plan to increase their ownership to do so quickly to avoid disappointment. 

We are well underway with the pre-construction work. Right now we are continuing to work on contracts in the build up to completing the purchase of the project at the end of this month. Once the share offer has closed we will send you a full update on the construction plans and keep you informed of your build progress every step of the way.

imeldamarcos

The update email mentioning the surge in new member interest gave no indication of the level of this interest, but appears to imply that bank funding will be used, so I guess the uptake of shares is still disappointing. Depending on the amound of bank debt taken on, I think existing subscribers should be give an option to get their money back if this debt changes the financial projections significantly. I hope that interest on any loan is not linked to any inflation indices as these are moving quite quickly. With inflation rising rapidly and big increases in wind farm building in the UK and Europe, I also hope that the price of building our wind farm has been agreed, otherwise it may well rise. On the plus side, forward price estimates for electricity for the period 2024-26 are currently in the region of 9-10p/KWh which suggests that there may be chance to benefit from the abnormally high electricity prices once Kirk Hall is open, before the huge expansion in electricity production from renewables hits the market. Of course, predicting anything this far out is very difficult and the accelerating move to electric vehicles will of course increase demand for electricity over this period which may help cancel out the increased production.