| Dear Editor,
I
am writing to highlight the increased need for
publicly owned energy companies as part of a
National strategy for energy provision, pricing
and investment into renewables. I am a member of
an Energy Co-operative in Scotland, “The
Great Glen Energy Co-op”, which was set up
in the Autumn last year and has been operating at
near full capacity since November 2008. The
principle idea of the creation of the co-op was
for local residents to have a stake in the wind
farm north of the hills in Inver Garry. There are
presently 16 Nordex Turbines at the site.
The
wind farm was developed by Falck renewables who
offered a stake in the farm to Energy4all, a
local energy co-op to buy a share in the site.
Falck renewables are the only company in the
Country who offer any shares in renewable
projects to co-operatives. Albeit a step in the
right direction the share offer only allows for a
4% royalty instrument purchase of the project
development cost. With a publicly owned energy
company or banking system however the share offer
to local residents could and should be much
higher.
Nonetheless
Energy4all selected a board of directors from the
community and who then launched a share offer to
local residents. Unlike commercial shares, each
one is offered at a nominal value of £1 and
cannot be traded on the stock market. In return
for the Co-op investment Falck undertakes to
guarantee a minimum gross return of 6.6% per
annum for the 25 year term of the project, to
repay capital raised in the share offer at the
end of the project, and to pay ongoing
administration costs of coop participation. A
substantial grant is available from the National
grid to provide green energy, and energy
companies built some of the connection equipment
allowing energy to be transferred to the national
grid.
In
my opinion such schemes of diversity of ownership
of resources should be encouraged and follows the
lead taken by cooperatives in countries such as
Denmark. This project is however in its infancy.
Falck is fairly new to the renewables sector and
the share offered to Energy4all is a small
percentage of the total capital, which is decided
by Falck. This highlights the need for a publicly
owned energy company which could offer much
larger stakes to cooperatives such as Energy4all.
In addition a publicly owned energy company would
provide energy at reasonable rates to the
National Grid within a National framework to keep
energy bills low for ordinary households.
The
first AGM of the Great Glen Energy Cooperative
has just taken place. The AGM highlighted some
initial key goals including spending on education
for local schools on the importance of
renewables. Another key goal of the cooperative
will be to provide a grant for those households
most in need of assistance with energy bills.
However
the AGM noted the difficulty in identifying those
most in need of support with their bills, caused
mostly because of the diversity of suppliers
offering varying excessively priced supplies of
electricity (and gas). Personally I hope those in
the Great Glen Energy Co-op area struggling with
high energy bills remains a priority for the
co-op, but there are difficulties to overcome.
Suggestions for action would be welcomed by
readers of DGS. In the meantime there are
plans for another Scottish wide cooperative. The
project is to be called “Caledonia”.
This should be welcomed, although share offers
will doubtlessly be limited in size. Nonetheless
it is a step in the correct direction within the
current overall domination of corporate
malfeasance in the energy sector. There are
currently eight Energy4all wind farm cooperatives
either operating or under planning in Scotland.
So far the Millennium Wind Farm has saved burning
33,376 tons of carbon, in just three months and
generated 67 MWh of electricity enough for more
than 10,000 homes. It is in inspiration and just
a drop in the ocean to what could be achieved
with a fully developed publicly owned energy
company and strategy.
Steve
Mowat
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