Small Investments in big renewables projects: a new player Abundance
Renewable energy schemes, whether wind, hydro, solar, wave, tidal, or biomass are supported by the vast majority of the population as a good idea. Some of us are lucky enough to be able to find a good site, space and money for our own generation; PV on a roof, a pellet stove or, in some special cases, a micro-hydro system running in the stream of ‘the Old Mill Cottage’. But what if you want to support renewable energy, gain some return on our investment and don’t have a suitable property – you might be in a flat in the centre of a city?
For a decade or so there have been ways of investing through a number of funds but these have generally been for specialists and are full of small print and ‘seek advice from you financial advisor’ caveats.
Then we had Energy 4 All, which broke the mould to allow local people to take a stake in a big development. These have been a great success with projects such as the 5 turbine Westmill Wind Farm near Shrivenham on the Wiltshire Oxfordshire border. A few specific local cooperatives have succeeded too; for example the BWCE based in Bath, which has installed some 360 kW of PV on schools using investment of around £750,000 from local people.
This week a new approach was launched in ‘Abundance’.
This scheme allows you to put some of your savings in an account that looks a bit like an online building society savings account. You then buy ‘debentures’ (now you do need a financial advisor), but this generates a return on our investment by being invested in a renewable energy project. The difference here seems to be the smallest investment is just a fiver and their web site allows you to invest an amount that allows you to match the renewable electricity you invest in to your electricity consumption.
Another way is buying electricity on a green tariff. Personally, I like Good Energy, a small supplier that aims to be all green power.
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Abundance – How it works from Abundance on Vimeo.
