Community turbine powers ahead after its first year of generation!
Since generating its first kWh in August 2017, YnNi Teg’s community turbine at Bwlch Gwynt, just outside Meidrim in Carmarthenshire, has gone from strength to strength, with highlights including:
- Raising over £400,000 in Community Shares
- Paying off the loan to the turbine developers, EWT
- Distributing £15,000 to local community projects
- Continuing to sell our electricity to Bristol Energy, and we’ve agreed a great Power Purchase Agreement for another year
- Generated close to 2,000,000 kWh of clean, community owned energy
As the deadline for buying shares approaches, we’re inviting people to visit the turbine on September 21st, where people can see the turbine in action, see some live generation statistics, and ask any questions about our future plans.
YnNi Teg initially commissioned a 900kW turbine in August 2017, financed by a short-term loan in order to meet the deadline for the government Feed-in Tariff, with the loan being repaid with the proceeds of a community share offer.
This community share offer is closing on September 28th so people can still invest in clean energy, energy that will be fit for our future generations. The minimum investment is £100, the maximum is £100,000 and the target average annual rate of return is 5% for the project’s 20-year lifetime. Following the government’s withdrawal of support for onshore wind, very few new community led wind turbine projects are likely to be launched in the near future.
Jeremy Thorp, Director, YnNi Teg, said: “The UK government has done its best to kill off onshore wind, including fantastic projects like this which are supported by their local communities. We want to get the message out that ordinary people can still invest in wind power – one of the lowest-cost and most efficient renewable technologies in the UK – and benefit from a triple-bottom-line return: making a difference to climate change, a fair average annual return of 5% and generating additional funds to support similar future community energy projects.”
The turbine is generating enough renewable electricity to power the equivalent of 650 typical homes. Surplus revenues will go to Community Energy Wales, a Social Enterprise that helps and supports community groups across Wales to get community owned renewable energy projects off the ground.
Chris Blake, Chair, Community Energy Wales, said: “Community energy is incredibly important, to enable communities to take ownership and responsibility for generating their own clean renewable energy. This turbine generates a lot of power, enough for over 600 homes, but also will help us in Community Energy Wales to inspire other projects across Wales to replicate and exceed this, literally putting power back at the core of our communities.”
In the twelve months since the turbine has been operational it has generated close to 2GWh of electricity. The power generated is currently being sold to ethical power supplier Bristol Energy.
Local Brecon resident Gareth Ellis is one of the investors in the project. He said: “I’ve bought shares in YnNi Teg because I get to fight climate change, support the Welsh economy and get interest on my money while doing it.”
The group has already won two prestigious accolades: YnNi Teg won the award for Sustainable Social Enterprise in the 2017 Sustain Wales Awards, and director Dan McCullum was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours.
To find out more, and download a share offer document please visit www.ynniteg.cymru