[Courtney_EONNext]

Hey Community 👋,

You may have heard a bit about this but just in case, we're thrilled to announce our exciting new partnership with Ripple, the UK's top platform for investing in wind and solar projects! 🤩

Now, customers can become a co-owner of the Whitelaw Brae Wind Farm in Scotland and earn bill credits based on how much clean energy your share generates. It's a win-win for wallets and the planet! 🤑🌍

Who is Ripple Energy?

Ripple Energy is a company that allows people to buy part of a renewable energy project, such as a wind farm or solar park, and receive electricity from it ⚡.

So how does it work?

Your energy supplier buys that electricity at the cost it took to generate it, rather than the higher market price. The difference is passed to you as a credit on your bill each month. As a Ripple member you own your own source of stable priced energy.

Why Whitelaw Brae Wind Farm?

Constructed near Tweedsmuir and north of Moffat, Whitelaw Brae Wind Farm will play home to 14 turbines and is ideally positioned to take advantage of optimal wind exposure.The UK is making meaningful progress towards its Net Zero by 2050 target but more green energy projects such as cooperatively-owned wind farms are needed for success.

The Whitelaw Brae Wind Farm site is on upland above the Fruid Reservoir. A habitat management plan has been designed to enhance the local ecology and wildlife, including grass maintenance to support nesting wader birds and the removal of scrub to allow healthier mosses to grow and support native biodiversity.

This partnership has been 3 years in the making, and it's a major step towards a greener future. We're empowering you to be a Playmaker in the energy transition! 🍃We'd love to hear your thoughts on this, do you think this new partnership will help us with a more sustainable future? 🤗


You can also find out more about this on Ripple’s website: https://rippleenergy.com/faq/all-questions

[meldrewreborn]

@Courtney_EONNext

Personally I wouldn’t participate. Investing in things like this are inherently risky, and If things were to go wrong There would be no support from Eon Next at all.
people should do their own research.

[Courtney_EONNext]

@meldrewreborn I understand your concerns about the risks involved in such investments, when the project is open for share purchase, a share offer document will be published. This sets out the details about the share offer and the risk factors. Ripple Energy does advise to read the share offer document and the customer agreement before purchasing shares 😁.

[Tommysgirl]

@Courtney_EONNext @meldrewreborn

I wouldn't participate personally either. I am in favour of wind farms, and there are quite a few within just a few miles of where I live.

My main reasons for not participating would be: the potential risks of investing in a project which hasn't been built yet; and the length of time it would take to recoup my investment before I started making any savings on my energy bills,

[WizzyWigg]

@Courtney_EONNext @Tommysgirl @meldrewreborn
This is not something I would consider. Just out of interest this is the offer document for the mentioned Whitelaw Brae Wind Farm. Page 34 is a section on Risk.
Whitelaw Brae Wind Farm offer PDF
As @meldrewreborn says it's vital to do your own in-depth research.

Investment in shares involves risks.

[Andy65]

Not a chance I'm afraid, and I'm struggling to see why anyone would.

For a 'medium' consumption user (3bed), the best case scenario is a 15 year payback, increasing to 21 years for the lowest estimate.

Why would anyone cough up £2000 and not see any return on it for at least 15 years? Also, the payback periods quoted by the calculator would not take account of inflation or the loss of any interest had you have kept the £2000 in a savings account.

[retrotecchie]

@Andy65

Wind generation is not cheaper than any other form so the 'low cost' electricity is simply nonsense. All generators are paid the same due to the way contracts are based on everyone getting the same price per MWh as the most expensive form of generation currently in use.

If anything, the problem with the grid capacity means that often renewable generation has to be turned off when there is a glut and the grid can't cope. This involves paying generators to shut down, so there really are no savings to be had.

Until the grid has had the £32 billion of necessary upgrades (paid for out of our pockets, of course) to facilitate roll-out of new low carbon generation connectivity, there is no way on earth that anyone will make any money or save on their energy bills by investing in these schemes.

£2000 will get you a good two or three kW of solar on your property which will begin paying back almost immediately. For £1000, if you have enough space and your property is in a suitable location, you could invest in your very own 2.5kW wind turbine! Again, almost immediate return on the investment.

I'm out!

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

All generators are paid the same due to the way contracts are based on everyone getting the same price per MWh as the most expensive form of generation currently in use.

And I venture to suggest the UK's 'Marginal Cost' method of pricing electricity means the price will be dependent on the cost of gas for the 20 + gas-fired stations dotted around the country for many years to come (certainly later than the end of the present government's term of office). Anyone that thinks bills will be £300 lower in the short-medium term needs to think again as Labour have now realised post-election. I doubt if this will be mentioned next week when Ed is wheeled out on October 1st once the press give them a hammering about the new October 1st price cap.

I also noticed that Labour have essentially nationalised the NGESO arm of the NG to now become absorbed into NESO (National Energy System Operator) for the princely sum of £630m just over a week ago. See where this goes! Meanwhile Hinkley Point C looks like it won't start generating leccy until 2029-30 at the earliest so that is not good news either. Then add on the recent CfD AR6 (Contracts for Difference Auction Round 6) which threw another pile of money into developing renewables ( an increase to £1.5 Billion over AR5's 227m) giving more electricity generation promise although at a much more generous cost to those bidding compared to earlier auctions. Still not enough to get to their stated aim of a crab-free grid by 2030 methinks. (I threw the crustacian in deliberately to see if you were paying attention 🤣)

I'm going to start my own self-build Yurt business powered by a small modular reactor (and I mean really small) in the next few years. That should do it. What do you think?😎

Rant over 👍

[meldrewreborn]

@Mailman

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Government were to come up with a revision to the current method of pricing electricity generation quite soon . The were proposals to do so under the previous government , so perhaps closer to fruition now.

given that renewable energy already constitutes 40+% of our electricity, I take the predictions of huge future price increases with some scepticism. Equally politician’s talk of £300 off bills in the future is as close to a falsehood as is humanly possible. The task of totally decarbonising our electricity generation is huge but good progress is being made. Targets are often missed but setting the target high isn’t a bad thing.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Government were to come up with a revision to the current method of pricing electricity generation quite soon . The were proposals to do so under the previous government , so perhaps closer to fruition now.

Yes the 2nd REMA (Review of Electricity Market Arrangements) consultation on this was closed on 7th May 2024 so there should be decision made soon although the documents talk about the development phase concluding in mid-2025 (page 14 'REMA' milestones) I had a cursory skim over the documents( both > 100 pages) contained therein. Some bullet popints I took from it:

1. The whole premise for the REMA consultation was for a 2035 goalpost net zero grid which of course has now changed to 2030. (page 9 - 'The Executive Summary')
2. REMA's conclusion on marginal pricing and alternatives (page 38) states the following mind-blowing statement 'Following extensive work to develop and assess the GPP (Green Power Pool) and Split Market options we will no longer continue to consider them in REMA. This is on the basis that they would not deliver benefits for consumers and fail in our assessment against our REMA criteria of deliverability and investor confidence.'
3. Unabated use of gas capacity (via CCGT plants) still anticipated past 2030 and indeed REMA states that, even by 2035, between 25-27 GW of gas needed to keep the lights on! (page 77). Because some of these these plants are getting to the end of shelf life REMA states 'Based on our internal analysis we expect that a limited amount of new build gas capacity will be required in the immediate term to ensure a secure and reliable system, to replace existing generation capacity as it expires. It is the only mature technology capable of providing sustained flexible capacity whilst low carbon long-duration alternatives, such as Power CCUS, H2P, and LDES scale up as we move into the 2030s.' (p76)
4. The graph on page 34 would suggest that by 2030 the % number of hours where unababted gas is the marginal plant falls to below 10% and by 2040 eliminated altogether leading REMA to state 'The low short-run marginal costs of renewables mean that we are therefore likely to observe prolonged periods of low wholesale market prices in future, when renewables are setting the marginal price, together with less frequent periods when prices are higher'. This is much more hopeful but I may not be around when that happens 😥

Of course there is much much more contained in REMA's docs and should send you to sleep quite easily (as happened to me last night) 😂