Scrutable

It's around here, 3.5 km South East of Kirkoswald, 3.5 km north of Dailly

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.3102456 ... 887,1819m/

Thanks. No rational reason to want to visit it, but tempting for the location (if not the nearby golf course )

Here’s a question as I ponder how much to buy. Is it safer to buy, eg, half my usage now and spread the risk to a future offer as and when it comes along? Or if, as I plan to, buy an electric car and my usage shoots up will full usage now become half usage in future thus achieving the same aim?

Bearing in mind they are taking nearly 2 years to bring this one online (which isnt unreasonable) the purchase is dead money for a while.

I thought it worth getting close to consumption in one go since the next chance might be another year or 2 down the line.

Well I have several lovely referrals. Thank you. I hope it all goes smoothly from here and the risk register items don’t come to pass. The one that felt the most likely to me was that they didn’t get fully funded and used debt to make up any shortfall. But they managed to get Ripple Co-op 1 fully done no problem and as lpm points out they’ve gone from 2 to 8 turbines so they seem quite bullish.

Related, I've invested some money in projects on energiseafrica.com

Some risk, only invest what you can afford to lose.

I'm in.

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 08, 2022 11:37 pm

Grumble wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:31 pm

lpm wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 06, 2021 11:52 am

Sling around your referral code, Grumble, it seems worth the £25 reservation fee.

Certainly, it’s https://rippleenergy.com/?ogu=2236

Looks like Ripple 2 is about to launch, if anyone wants to jump on board.

Although I've signed with the £25 registration fee with Ripple, I'm pretty sure I won't go further.
It's a long term return that'll be dependent on swapping to their tied electricity company, and the inability to transfer membership of the coop is a significant limitation.

Given my age (early 60's), I can be optimistic of having a decade at least of retaining an account in my own name, but that'll be the only way to get a return. So if I needed to move into residential accommodation, or decided to move overseas, then there wouldn't be any return on the investment, and no way to pass it on without dying.

You've got 20 years before we shove you in a home surely, Granddad.

Given my age (early 60's), I can be optimistic of having a decade at least of retaining an account in my own name, but that'll be the only way to get a return. So if I needed to move into residential accommodation, or decided to move overseas, then there wouldn't be any return on the investment, and no way to pass it on without dying.

I had the same concerns, although in the end I decided to go in. It seems weird to describe dying as the optimistic scenario, but in this case it is.

The extended offer period closes today.

I think they are way below their original target. But they have said they have enough funding to go forward. I'm not sure we'll be getting the full eight turbines though.

Not a great success but it is fully funded.

Aim was 14,400 individuals. Only got 5,600.

- The external investor, Bruntwood, has increased its equity share from 30% to 42%.
- 18 businesses have taken a share
- debt financing to cover the remaining gap, leaving the capital raise as 70% equity and 30% debt

Surprised the debt element wasn't already in the plan. They haven't disclosed interest rate or tenor, or who the lender is.

lpm wrote: ↑

Fri May 06, 2022 5:26 pm

Not a great success but it is fully funded.

Aim was 14,400 individuals. Only got 5,600.

- The external investor, Bruntwood, has increased its equity share from 30% to 42%.
- 18 businesses have taken a share
- debt financing to cover the remaining gap, leaving the capital raise as 70% equity and 30% debt

Surprised the debt element wasn't already in the plan. They haven't disclosed interest rate or tenor, or who the lender is.

Bit of a shame there were less than half the number of individuals they wanted.

My county authority has just publicised a scheme called Solar Together, where you facilitate a collective procurement of solar panels by a number of houses in the county. They will then put that to tender for a single company to (have an option to) fit solar panels to everyone on the scheme, in the hope that it will drive down the cost of it.

Since it is no obligation, and a lot less effort than running my own competitive tending process, I thought I may as well sign up. Anyone else come across something similar in their own area?

My own house is a bit awkward for it. The garage has a south-facing roof-slope but it's a bit small. The main house has roof slopes facing E and W, but is interrupted by dormers, and a large front porch. Probably you'd get a decent total area by using the garage and the W-facing roof, but you have to deal with the issue that's on 2 separate buildings. They are only about 1.5 m apart at the closest point, but the electrician had to devise a rather convoluted wiring route when he supplied power to the garage.

A standard size installation would deliver rather more electricity in the year than we consume, and mainly at times when we aren't using it. It seems there is an option to divert some to the immersion heater in the tank, which would allow us to use rather more of it, and at times when it is generated. We'll have to see if the hot water tank is sufficiently well insulated that I can avoid turning on the gas boiler's hot water circuit in the early morning to maximise the use of it.

Anyway, when they've had a look at it, we can see if it is a plausible cost to go ahead given the complications.

IvanV wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 12:59 pm

Anyone else come across something similar in their own area?

No - just googled it though and it turns out the local CC did have a scheme that held such an 'auction' on 15th March. So it seems I've missed the boat. Have left my details in the (still working) registration page anyway as it suggests there will be future auctions.

I have a S-SW roof that is rather large... should be able to generate quite a bit. Wonder if I could get battery storage in the garage and essentially live off grid for large parts of the year.

It's a very good idea. I'd not heard about it, but Hampshire ran one last year through the Solar Together platform, who currently show listings in 17 areas (not sure if all are currently accepting registrations; given likely high attrition rates I'd hope at least some can accept latecomers). Eta link https://solartogether.co.uk/landing

Collective bargaining has a strong record of delivering results efficiently. Pushing for such a scheme locally would be a really powerful way for a few individuals to make a relatively large contribution to their energy security and the climate emergency.

Local government actually seems a sensible scale for administering this, with local contractors etc. Would be nice to see top-down govt funding and encouragement, but maybe the public can do well without those losers.

Yep - solar together is the one I just registered for... can't say i'd heard of them before today. So someone needs to go a better job of marketing these things.

We're about to be evaluated (again) for solar, and to see if we qualify for the tax credit to get it cheep.

Now Texas has no shortage of blaring sun, so I expect the numbers to be a bit cheerier than you'll get in Scotland.

I'll keep youz posted!

First I’ve heard of such a scheme. Though I did sign up for the co-op wind farm which they should start making soon.

I’m a partner with LPM, which is a bit scary.

Our council has recently announced they're looking for partners to install panels across a number of premises, but only council ones.

Our most usably pitched roof is slightly West of SW, so we're not best placed, but it's something we should be considering

IvanV wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 12:59 pm

We'll have to see if the hot water tank is sufficiently well insulated that I can avoid turning on the gas boiler's hot water circuit in the early morning to maximise the use of it.

Is it a pressurised hot water system with a big cylindrical European-style cylinder, or a vented one with a smaller dome-topped traditional Great British cylinder? If the former I would predict yes, if the latter maybe not.

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 8:43 pm

Our most usably pitched roof is slightly West of SW, so we're not best placed, but it's something we should be considering

Early evening electricity is more useful/valuable than middle of the day electricity. So although you generate less, your electricity is more valuable with a WSW roof. Morning isn't quite so good, but the again the electricity is a little more valuable around breakfast-time than midday. I've seen studies suggesting that to have two roof slopes facing due E and W is a more valuable arrangement than N & S.

But the standard arrangements for remunerating rooftop solar generators do not take this value difference into account, it tends to be a fixed amount per unit regardless of when.

nekomatic wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 9:01 pm

IvanV wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 12:59 pm

We'll have to see if the hot water tank is sufficiently well insulated that I can avoid turning on the gas boiler's hot water circuit in the early morning to maximise the use of it.

Is it a pressurised hot water system with a big cylindrical European-style cylinder, or a vented one with a smaller dome-topped traditional Great British cylinder? If the former I would predict yes, if the latter maybe not.

The first, fortunately, since 4 years ago.

I haven't really had a proper test of how well it can store hot water, because we have only just had fixed a weird fault in another part of the system that was causing mains cold water to get into the hot water tank, by going backwards up a hot water exit pipe, and overflowing hot water into the drain. We didn't notice this until it got very bad from about a year ago. But I suspect it was going on at a lower rate from before when we had the new tank fitted.

This thread is now a year old.

Has anyone rerun the numbers recently, given electricity prices gave gone up a smidgen? Must mean solar + battery is more appealing?

I'm assuming arranging an installation now will mean a wait of a year or something, though, given the funded up state of this country.

Yesterday I ran the online simulator to see what the numbers would look like for my place. Lots of sun and a conveniently oriented and angled roof.

Results were that the payback period is estimated to be 39 years and I'd need planning permission.

Not overly tempted to go ahead, I must say.