Brighton Energy Coop launches – sign up now!

On Wednesday night Brighton Energy Co-operative launched our pioneering project to generate community-owned green power in Brighton & Hove.

Seventy people joined us at the Friend’s Meeting House, to hear about our £200,000 share offer and to pick up copies of our investment invitation and application form.

You can find out how to sign up here.

By the end of the evening, we had raised £27,000 towards our target. The same day we were also offered a £50,000 loan facility from a community investment fund. This means we require only £18,000 further before we can pay for our project at Shoreham Port!

Green MP Caroline Lucas and new leader of the council Jason Kitcat spoke in support of the Co-op. Jason also indicated that the council intends to make an investment in the project.

The money raised will be used to fund solar arrays at Shoreham Port, St Georges Church (Kemptown) and City Coast Church (Portslade).

Members will receive a return of 4% on their investment, starting at the beginning of our third year of operation. This will increase over time as our revenue (from feed in tariffs and electricity payments) is linked to inflation.

Investors may also qualify for the EIS tax scheme, which allows for 30% of any investment to be offset against your tax bill. Note that we can’t apply for EIS qualifying status until after we install; however we did qualify for EIS for an earlier scheme and are confident that we will again.

Now it’s crunch time. Over the next few weeks we will be contracting installers to begin work. As such it’s key we get investment in as soon as possible – our installers need to start to pay their suppliers for their materials. We aim to begin installation on 28 May.

So: If you are interested in joining BEC you can sign up here. Do check out our investment invitation; our FAQ section has detailed advice on the offer – and do feel free to email me any questions you have.

Many thanks for your support so far – over the course of the last fifteen months we have raised £53,000 towards this exciting project and I’m confident that our current target can be attained.

Best

Will Cottrell

Director, Brighton Energy Co-operative

info@brightonenergy.org.uk

Caroline Lucas encourages the audience to support community energy

BEC Director Damian Tow outlines our proposed scheme

Council leader Jason Kitkat revealed Brighton and Hove Council were considering investing in BEC.

A new member signs up!

A rare sight – me in a suit.