Opportunity for businesses to invest in share offer press release

5th September 2023

A scheme to take a Shropshire solar farm into community ownership offers an ideal opportunity for county businesses to make a long-term ethical investment, the society behind the offer said today.

Community Benefit Society Shropshire and Telford Community Energy (STCE) says its share offer for Twemlows solar farm gives companies the chance to demonstrate their environmental credentials, help generate vital funds for their local community and receive a targeted six per cent return on their investment.

STCE has already raised more than £150,000 less than a month after launching its share offer in Twemlows, a 10MW solar farm on the edge of Whitchurch which can power the equivalent of 3,400 homes.

Dave Green, from STCE, said businesses would benefit in a number of ways from investing in the offer, which remains open until the end of October.

“We believe the Twemlows share offer represents the perfect opportunity for businesses to invest in something which helps the environment, makes a real contribution to fighting climate change, generates funding for a wide range of community projects and also offers a fair target return for their investment.

“At a time when companies are increasingly being judged on their corporate social responsibility and their ESG – environmental, social and governance – this is the perfect chance for them to make a real contribution to the planet and their community.”

Since it began operating in 2016, Twemlows has helped save more than 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and generated nearly £100,000 of community funding to date.

Dave added: “Bringing Twemlows into community ownership will not only guarantee the environmental benefits of renewable power for the lifetime of the solar farm, it will enable us to distribute around £4.5million in community benefit over the next 18 years.

“That – and the six per cent targeted return – is a real win-win for any company which chooses to invest.”

Investments start from £250 with a £100,000 ceiling and generate an interest-only return for the first five years, moving to a return of capital plus interest in years six to ten.

Each investor becomes a member of STCE on a one-member one-vote basis.

STCE is one of five community energy groups from across England and Wales to have joined forces under the Community Energy Together banner to launch share offers for a total of seven operational solar farms in the first scheme of its kind in the UK.

Overall, the Community Energy Together programme will save a combined 317,000 tonnes of CO2 over the lifetimes of the solar farms, which have a collective capacity of 36MW – enough to power the equivalent of 12,750 homes.

Bringing the seven solar farms into community ownership will increase the capacity of community owned solar energy in England and Wales by approximately 20 per cent. Over the projects’ lifetime it will generate a collective community benefit fund of around £20 million to support local social and environmental projects and develop new community renewable projects.

Share offer launch press release 9th August 2023

The five STCE directors at the Launch event on the 8th August. L to R – Mark Latham, Fran Hunt, Robert Saunders, Howard Betts and Dave Green

A share offer to transfer a successful Shropshire solar farm into community ownership – and help generate millions of pounds to fund local projects – has already raised nearly £60,000. Community Benefit Society Shropshire and Telford Community Energy (STCE) formally launched the offer for Twemlows solar farm at a special event next to the site near Whitchurch yesterday (August 8).

The offer, which has been live for a week, has already attracted 24 investors and raised £57,170.

The share offer will enable local people who care about climate change to put their money to work to tackle the issue directly, earn a fair return on their investment, and greatly increase the solar farm’s economic contribution to the local area.

STCE is one of five community energy groups from across England and Wales to have joined forces under the Community Energy Together banner to launch share offers for a total of seven operational solar farms in the first scheme of its kind in the UK.

Twemlows has been operating successfully since 2016. It is a 10MW solar farm which can power the equivalent of 3,400 homes, helping save more than 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and which has generated nearly £100,000 of community funding to date.

Dave Green, from STCE, said the launch represented a huge opportunity for people to get involved in the transition to Net Zero and massively increase the amount of money the Twemlows site would generate for community projects.

“This is a really exciting day for STCE and Twemlows solar farm.  The share offer means individuals will be able to invest directly and earn a fair target return of 6% with a low minimum investment of £250 – whilst supporting a vital source of green energy and helping to raise cash for some fantastic community projects.

“Our target is to raise £730,000. Bringing Twemlows into community ownership will enable us to distribute around £4.5million in community benefit over the next 18 years, including setting up new community energy schemes.

“The Twemlows share offer is not just supporting a cleaner, greener and fairer future, it will directly benefit local community projects for many years to come.”

STCE chair, Robert Saunders, added: “Community owned energy gives individuals the vital opportunity to play a part in the clean energy transition beyond just being a consumer. STCE is in great company with four like-minded Community Benefit Societies. Whilst owning our individual solar farms, we are committed to working together and supporting each other so that we can benefit from each other’s expertise, experience and share knowledge and lessons along the way.”

Overall, Community Energy Together will fund the transfer of seven operational solar farms into community ownership, saving a combined 317,000 tonnes of CO2 over the lifetimes of the solar farms, which have a collective capacity of 36MW – enough to power the equivalent of 12,750 homes.

Bringing the seven solar farms into community ownership will increase the capacity of community owned solar energy in England and Wales by approximately 20%. Over the projects’ lifetime it will generate a collective community benefit fund of around £20 million to support local social and environmental projects and develop new community renewable projects.

An innovative cross-collateralised finance model has been created by the current owner of the solar farm portfolio, Community Owned Renewable Energy (CORE), a partnership set up by Big Society Capital and Power to Change to oversee the transfer of solar farms into community ownership. The model reduces the cost of borrowing and spreads risk, thereby increasing the size of the community benefit pot.

The Twemlows share offer is now live on positive investment platform Ethex here: https://www.ethex.org.uk/invest/stce

Our Share Offer is Imminent

After three years of work we are finally nearly ready to launch our share offer for the Twemlows solar farm.  We are working towards a share offer launch of summer 2023 .  We’ll be looking to raise at least £730,000 with a favourable interest rate and we’ll be publicising the Share Offer Document as soon as it’s ready.  Please sign up for our Newsletter list if you haven’t done so already.

Continue reading “STCE Update Mar 2023”

STCE are pleased to welcome Kevin Oubridge as the new Shropshire & Telford Big Solar Co-ordinator.  We look forward to working with Kevin on delivering rooftop solar sites across the area.

We can confirm that STCE is now fully constituted (FCA Registration 8829) and we have our own bank account with Unity Trust Bank.

Continue reading “STCE Update May 2022”

STCE Update Oct 2021 Community Benefit Fund.

Deadline extended to Wed 17th am.. 

STCE have been asked to distribute £20k of Community Benefit Fund money from the Twemlows Solar Farm.

£10k of this is available to community projects within 15 miles of the site at Prees Heath.  This money will be distributed by the Shropshire Rural Communities Charity, see https://www.shropshire-rcc.org.uk/.

The other £10k is available for environmental projects around Shropshire and Telford.  There is a maximum of £5k per project, organisations need to be fully constituted with a bank account and any expenditure already committed is not eligible.  For the full criteria and application form please email info@stcenergy.org.uk.  The deadline for applications is Nov 17th am and decisions should be announced by Nov 29th.

Also..

Marches Energy Agency have completed their very useful work on the scale of renewables required in the Marches to meet the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) targets.  We’ll post a copy on this website soon.

The Bishop’s Castle Heat & Wind project run by Sharenergy has moved forward very quickly.  A wind constraints study has been completed and a survey and public meeting have been held.  The meeting was very well attended and 122 survey responses have been received.  There is very strong support both the heat network (82%) and the wind turbine (79%).  A request has been sent to the Town Council for both the heat network and the wind turbine to be included in the town’s Neighbourhood Plan. See www.lightfootenterprises.org.

Both of these pieces of work have been funded through the grant STCE have received from Next Generation. see https://www.next-generation.org.uk/

Meanwhile discussions re the purchase of Twemlows Solar Farm continue slowly.  We expect to know more early in 2022 with a share offer possibly after Easter 2022.

STCE are still hoping to purchase Twemlows solar farm but the process of arranging the transfer of the portfolio of sites currently owned by CoRE into community ownership is taking much longer than anyone expected.  We hope to have news on progress in early September.

Meanwhile Power to Change have approved a Next Generation grant for STCE.  This includes money for setting up a Community Benefit Society, running a share offer and investigating ways of improving the biodiversity of the Twemlows site.

Money is also available for feasibility studies for other community renewable schemes in Shropshire and Telford and Sharenergy have been contracted to carry out this work.  The most promising project at the moment is for a heat network and wind turbine combination in Bishop’s Castle, but we are also looking at other schemes.

Marches Energy Agency (MEA) have also been funded to look into the scale of renewables needed in Shropshire and Telford to meet net Zero targets, a report on this will be issued shortly.  MEA are also carrying out some work on energy efficiency and community networks.

STCE have also been asked to arrange for the distribution of £20k of Community Benefit funds from Twemlows.  £10k of this is set aside for community projects local to Whitchurch, this money will be managed by the Rural Communities Charity.  The other £10k is available for environmental projects across the whole of Shropshire and Telford, please get in touch if you would like to apply for some of this money.

The Shropshire and Telford Community Energy working group have been busy over the last couple of months, finding out what’s required in running a community energy society.

We’re looking at what other groups have been doing, discussing model rules, studying the roles of directors, thinking of PR campaigns etc.

We aim to have the community benefit society set up in July and be in a position to launch our share offer in October.

We are awaiting a revised version of the financial model for buying Twemlows but it now looks as though there will be a bond offer shared amongst all the six organisations in the CoRE portfolio with us having to raise around £700,000 through a community share issue.*

We have four volunteers willing to stand for the main posts of the society: Robert Saunders as Chair, Tim Baldwin as Vice-Chair, Fran Hunt as Treasurer and Dave Green as Secretary. These four are assisted by Howard Betts, Naomi Wrighton, Nick Saxby and Rebecca Tee.
Nick has offered to set up facebook and twitter accounts, Dave is looking after the website.

As part of the CoRE Next Generation programme we’re also being offered a grant for feasibility studies for further community energy schemes in the Shropshire and Telford area.

If you have any ideas that you would like to have added to our long list please email info@stcenergy.org.uk.  We’ll have a good look at all ideas but obviously we can’t promise they’ll all be taken up. 

A word from our Chair-elect, Robert Saunders: “I am very happy to be in this role whilst looking to colleagues for much support in this challenging task.  Much work will have to be done in a short period of time.  We are learning quickly with much professional help from our partners.  I look forward to being able to launch our share offer to Shropshire and Telford folk and wider afield.”

Nick Saxby comments that “Being a part of this project has been challenging and rewarding. My background is conservation and education, so I’m really interested in promoting sustainability generally, but I didn’t have experience in the renewable energy sector. There has been a lot to learn about the technicalities of managing a project like this, but thankfully, STCE and the broader consortium has put me in contact with a fantastic network of skilled, experienced and, importantly, helpful professionals, who have made the process very enjoyable.

“The covid-19 lockdown has itself been a challenge, but also an opportunity to build networks and learn new things digitally: I’ve never had so many webinars! I’m passionate about working for the benefit of local communities, and I’m optimistic and ambitious about what STCE is going to be able to achieve in the coming years”.

* Bonds are normally a shorter term investment, up to ten years with an agreed repayment schedule and interest rate.  Shares are a longer term investment with the capital repaid gradually but as finances allow.  Only shareholders are members of the society. More details will be contained in our share offer document. 

Best wishes,

Dave for the STCE Working Group