Ripple Energy wind farm?

will-he-payitoff

NigeWick said:

Martyn1981 said:

Have others had an e-mail from Ripple talking about their next scheme, which may be a larger scale PV farm?

It's going to be another PV.

How do you know that its going to be PV?

Coastalwatch

will-he-payitoff said:

NigeWick said:

Martyn1981 said:

Have others had an e-mail from Ripple talking about their next scheme, which may be a larger scale PV farm?

It's going to be another PV.

How do you know that its going to be PV?

I've no knowledge of project 4 but given the soaring costs of Wind turbines currently and with PV panel prices still falling then I can only imagine that wind would be unlikely to offer much if anything of a return for Ripple members!

Netexporter

They seem to have dropped the offshore joint project. I think I saw mention in a newsletter that they were investigating further PV sites. I suppose, these days, it is site, wind or solar, that have a prospect of grid connection in the near future that are of most interest.

Martyn1981

I think it's still speculative, but if it helps, here's what Ripple sent/asked me:

We want to get your thoughts on a potential new project opportunity.  It is a large solar park that would connect to the grid in January 2026. 

If we progress the project we would bake in bank finance from the outset.  This would reduce the upfront cost to around £1000 for a share of the solar park that would generate 2,900kWh per year (so 100% of a typical household's electricity consumption). 

This would be our lowest cost offering to date and would make green energy ownership affordable for far more people.  This would make co-operative solar ownership about a third of the cost we've been able to achieve previously.

You'd still have the option to scale your ownership to suit you, just like any other Ripple project.

Repayment of the bank finance would reduce the level of savings compared to other projects until the bank finance is paid off.  The rate of return over the project's lifetime would be comparable to our Derril Water Solar Park.

Not sure if this would necessarilly be the next project, or just a later project, but if they hope to connect it in Jan 2026 then it would need to be offered before the end of 2024(ish)?

NigeWick

will-he-payitoff said:

How do you know that its going to be PV?

"We don't have the full details on the next project but we are exploring the opportunity of a solar project currently"

I thought they'd decided but I sit corrected.

NedS

Martyn1981 said:

I think it's still speculative, but if it helps, here's what Ripple sent/asked me:

We want to get your thoughts on a potential new project opportunity.  It is a large solar park that would connect to the grid in January 2026. 

If we progress the project we would bake in bank finance from the outset.  This would reduce the upfront cost to around £1000 for a share of the solar park that would generate 2,900kWh per year (so 100% of a typical household's electricity consumption). 

This would be our lowest cost offering to date and would make green energy ownership affordable for far more people.  This would make co-operative solar ownership about a third of the cost we've been able to achieve previously.

For the sake of comparison, I just tried a back of an envelope calculation to see how many kWh £1000 invested in Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF) would provide based on their generation figures for the year ending June 2023, current share price and the average number of shares in circulation, and a £1000 investment in BSIF (885 shares) would give 'ownership' of around 1,488kWh of their 836GWh of generation. BSIF own predominantly solar assets with a small amount of wind assets and battery storage thrown in.

As BSIF are estimating a 7.5% yield that is 2x covered by earnings (~15% total return) over the next couple years, if Ripple are as efficient in turning electricity generated into capital, are they suggesting a 30% annual return on investment? I doubt those figures stack up? Even if we correct for the current discount to NAV, BSIF still trades on a 6.3% forward yield to NAV, 2x covered by earnings, suggesting Ripple could return twice that at 25% and pay for itself in 4 years?

QrizB

NedS said:

For the sake of comparison, I just tried a back of an envelope calculation to see how many kWh £1000 invested in Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF) would provide based on their generation figures for the year ending June 2023 ...

Oh, that's a thought.

£1000 would buy 757 shares of UKWIND, which is generating roughly 1.8kWh/share/yr (0.9kWh/share in the first 6 months of the current reporting year). That's 1363kWh/yr.

Dividend yield is about 8.8p for the current year, a return of 6.7%, with 2.1x dividend cover.

... if Ripple are as efficient in turning electricity generated into capital, are they suggesting a 30% annual return on investment? I doubt those figures stack up? Even if we correct for the current discount to NAV, BSIF still trades on a 6.3% forward yield to NAV, 2x covered by earnings, suggesting Ripple could return twice that at 25% and pay for itself in 4 years?

I suspect financing costs will eat into that signficantly, hence their statement that:

Repayment of the bank finance would reduce the level of savings compared to other projects until the bank finance is paid off.  The rate of return over the project's lifetime would be comparable to our Derril Water Solar Park.

So you can buy a bigger share of the farm for your £1000, and get the warm feeling that "your electricity" comes from "your solar farm", but your monetary returns are reduced by finance costs.

Coastalwatch

Following a good blow in south Wales yesterday/overnight and according to my spreadsheet the return from GF has reached 35% of it's original investment cost.

Alnat1

Coastalwatch said:

Following a good blow in south Wales yesterday/overnight and according to my spreadsheet the return from GF has reached 35% of it's original investment cost.

I think you need to re-write that, or is it just my dirty mind?

QrizB

Received an email from Ripple with slightly disappointing (but unsurprising) news regarding the tax treatment of Ripple payments.

As you may know we have been engaging with HMRC and HM Treasury regarding the tax treatment of Ripple members' savings for a number of years. Following back and forth between
Ripple, HMRC and James Cartlidge, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, HMRC came to the view that the ‘trading benefit’ of members’ bill savings should be treated as interest income. We then wrote to the Treasury asking that they introduce a tax relief on the trading allowance, like that which is available to home solar income and savings. They have, however, declined to create such a tax relief.  

We want to stress that the vast majority of Ripple members will not face any tax on their bill savings, with or without a tax relief.  

The trading benefit would only be subject to tax where a member breaches their annual interest allowance. The vast majority of people do not reach their annual allowance, so would therefore not be liable for any tax on their trading benefit.

So, Ripple trading income will be treated as interest and will be taxed as such. If your annual interest payments are less than the various allowances, they will remain untaxed; otherwise, they will be taxed at your marginal rate.

I can see me having to bump up my pension payments again when Kirk Hill comes on line!