Futures Forum: SidEnergy latest: launch of Share Offer: Weds 18th June
Futures Forum: Energy-switching from SidEnergy: Sat 14th June
Whereas Lumicity have failed to get planning permission for its solar farm near Sidbury - possibly through lack of engagement with the local community:
Futures Forum: Futures Forum: Solar Plan for Sidmouth: second application fails
... Good Energy are offering local people the opportunity to invest in its proposed wind farm - also a very controversial project:
Investment bonds offered for giant wind farm in Cornwall
By WMNAGreenwood | Posted: June 05, 2014
People across Cornwall are being offered the chance to invest in a controversial giant wind farm which could become part of the largest renewable energy site in the county.
Good Energy has applied to build 11 turbines – almost 400ft to blade tip in height (125m) – on farmland near Week St Mary in North Cornwall. The £30 million scheme – dubbed The Big Field Wind Farm – could also eventually include a 75-acre solar farm which, if built, would make in the biggest green energy site in Cornwall.
The company has now announced that it intends to issue a local version of “Good Energy Bonds” which were released last year. The new scheme would be open to anyone living in Cornwall, with preferential rates for those living closest to the proposed wind farm site.
Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of Good Energy, said: “We believe in a 100% renewable future and Cornwall is leading the way.
“We think that the communities helping to make this happen, by hosting new wind and solar projects in their area, should share in the benefits. One way of achieving this is to enable people to make a financial investment in those developments. The Big Field Wind Farm can provide a lasting positive legacy for the environment and the local community, and we are proud to put our name to it. There is already huge support for renewables in Cornwall and we want people to really get behind our new project – investing gives people a real stake in their own energy future.”
If granted planning permission, people would be able to buy into the project for as little as £50. The bonds are expected to have a competitive annual rate of interest, comparable to the 7.25% provided by the bonds released by the company last year.
Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee is due to debate the wind farm application on July 3. Hundreds of letters have been received by the local authority both for and against the proposals.
Villagers fear the scheme will impact on house prices, be noisy and ruin the landscape.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is opposing the development. It has said the primary concern was the visual impact on the surrounding landscape, which includes three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
It said the 11 turbines would be as tall as a 40-storey building, cover 125 acres and be visible from a distance of up to 15km.
Investment bonds offered for giant wind farm at Week St Mary | Western Morning News
Cornwall residents offered chance to invest in renewable energy | Business Cornwall
Recently, the company received a business award:
Good Energy takes social impact award
10:09am Friday 23rd May 2014 in Latest News
Chippenham-based 100 per cent renewable electricity supplier, Good Energy, has won Social Impact Company of the Year at the 2014 Small Cap Awards.
The annual awards, supported by the London Stock Exchange PLC, the Social Stock Exchange and ISDX, celebrate the best names and organisations in the UK’s small and micro-cap community.
Tomas Carruthers, Chief Executive of the Social Stock Exchange said: "This well-deserved accolade is an important step forward in emphasising the social and environmental impact businesses like Good Energy, and their fellow nominees deliver as the appetite for impact investing increases."
Juliet Davenport, OBE, Chief Executive of Good Energy, said: “At Good Energy we strive to lead by example and to set the standard in the energy market as an ethically and socially responsible company. We are living proof that an energy business can be commercially successful thanks to our ambitions to tackle climate change and energy security, not despite them.”
The awards were hosted by Peter Dickson, the voice of the X-Factor, with guest speaker John Bird, founder of The Big Issue.
Good Energy takes social impact award (From Wiltshire Business Online)
And it seems that smaller energy companies are offering better service to their customers - both potential and current:
Newer, smaller firms such as Ecotricity, Ovo, M&S Energy, Spark Energy and Good Energy came out well in Which?'s exercise.
Energy firms answer sales calls in one minute, existing customers wait ten - Telegraph
‘Unprecedented’ growth forces small energy suppliers to battle customer service issues - Blue and Green Tomorrow
Here's an overview of the company from a fortnight ago:
Good Energy: it’s not about technology anymore, it’s about people | Life and style | theguardian.com
And the question is how far the likes of Good Energy can shape the market:
The energy industry is itself divided over the transition to a low carbon economy. Diversification of the energy market, and the providers that supply it, is clearly a pressure point for the main players. "If we move to a renewable world, then this will have a mix of large- and small-scale projects. This means that more companies will be able to enter the market creating more competition from the likes of renewable energy companies such as Ecotricity and Good Energy – which is clearly a threat to the big six," says Nick Molho, head of energy policy at WWF-UK
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