Ripple Energy

[funduffer]

Anyone invested in Ripple Energy?

It is a cooperative, where you buy a share in a renewable generating site, and get the proceeds as money off your bills.

https://rippleenergy.com/how-it-works?g ... ATEALw_wcB

The first 2 projects were on-shore wind turbines, but the next one is to be a solar farm.

You buy your share, and the proceeds are delivered back to you from your energy supplier (provided they are supporting the scheme).

This would be good for someone who cannot invest in their own solar (eg because they don’t have a south facing roof), but want some of the benefits of solar.

It is a long term investment, ~25 years, but you can pass your shareholding on to your family, or even sell it.

Interesting idea, and being a cooperative, all profiles are shared.

I am thinking of investing a modest amount.

FD

[scrumpyjack]

Is the return taxable?

[funduffer]

Is the return taxable?

Part of the returns are treated as a return of capital and are untaxed, and the rest is treated as savings interest. So this part would be taxable against your personal savings allowance.

In addition, Ripple are trying to convince HMRC that all returns should be tax free to match what happens when you receive FIT/SEG payments from your solar panels. If they are successful, then no tax will be payable.

See this link:

https://rippleenergy.com/faq/search?search=Tax

FD

[SebsCat]

Has anyone got any views on this? Investment in the Derril Water solar park is now open to the public. The returns don't look that great but it's an easy way to offset carbon if that's something that appeals to you and it's not going to be easy to install solar at home. Both of those are in its favour for me.

Electricity savings are estimated at being around 5.9% on the investment cost so it's better than you can get in a savings account, but on the downside it's going to take nearly 18 months until it's operational and the savings start. You won't be allowed to withdraw the investment until 2 years after that. However with 3% of the investment capital then being returned each year, the effective return is going to work out at more like 8% or so over the longer term. The savings should be tax-free for me as I can make use of the starting rate for savings.

With a 40 year project lifespan it's definitely something that many of us won't see to the end!

I'm thinking of putting in enough to cover about 40% of our electricity use, allowing for investing in a couple more similar projects in the future (they limit the amount you can invest to 120% of your annual usage - although it appears they only ask for proof of this if you say it's more than 7,000 KWH). If nothing else it will act as a small hedge against future price changes.

nb: to correct something funduffer said, you cannot sell your investment. It's non-transferable (other than on death) and the only option would be to seek to withdraw the investment which will only be possible if there are others wanting to purchase more or the co-op is willing to do so itself.

The share offer document is at https://static.rippleenergy.com/assets/ ... -04-17.pdf

[BullDog]

Rather than spend money on solar panels myself I bought NESF shares in my ISA. Tax free income.

[2naive]

Ripple Energy, the management company also did a crowdfund on Seedrs some time ago.

https://www.seedrs.com/businesses/ripple

They might do another round of fundraising, and shares can be bought on what Seedrs call the Secondary Market.

I bought shares in Ripple's Kirk Hill windfarm project (still waiting for project completion), and I bought shares in the crowdfund. I've had shares in other renewable energy co-ops for many years and they've mostly worked out well, so I have no doubt about the co-op model.

[funduffer]

I have invested to about 70% of my electricity consumption. More because I like the idea rather than a compelling business case!

I compared the Ripple business case to my own solar panels, which I bought a couple of years ago. The Ripple business case is much worse, taking about 17 years to pay back, compared to 7 or 8 years for my panels. However, it is all a bet on future electricity prices, so who really knows? I think Ripple have probably erred on the side of caution in estimating returns.

For those who invested in the earlier wind turbine project, then returns have been very high this year, not surprisingly. But this may not last!

I also own some NESF shares, so it will be interesting to see which turns own to be the best investment - my panels, Ripple or NESF.

The Ripple solar project, which is estimated to have a lifetime of 40 years, will outlast me, but I will leave my share to the kids.

FD

[BullDog]

I have invested to about 70% of my electricity consumption. More because I like the idea rather than a compelling business case!

I compared the Ripple business case to my own solar panels, which I bought a couple of years ago. The Ripple business case is much worse, taking about 17 years to pay back, compared to 7 or 8 years for my panels. However, it is all a bet on future electricity prices, so who really knows? I think Ripple have probably erred on the side of caution in estimating returns.

For those who invested in the earlier wind turbine project, then returns have been very high this year, not surprisingly. But this may not last!

I also own some NESF shares, so it will be interesting to see which turns own to be the best investment - my panels, Ripple or NESF.

The Ripple solar project, which is estimated to have a lifetime of 40 years, will outlast me, but I will leave my share to the kids.

FD

A fascinating situation to be in. A couple of things swung me towards NESF rather than my own PV array. One thing was that the PV array is a wasting asset with maintenance requirements. NESF obviously have the same issue. But I figured my return from the shares would be after those costs. Over the next ten to twenty years it's an interesting experiment.

[formoverfunction]

Yes, via Seedrs. First round only. There accounts were out this week.