Westmill Solar Co-operative is the industrial and provident society that owns the Westmill Solar Park in Oxfordshire, England, believed to be the largest community-owned photovoltaic power station in the world.
Westmill Solar Co-operative is the industrial and provident society that owns the Westmill Solar Park in Oxfordshire, England, believed to be the largest community-owned photovoltaic power station in the world.
The project was originally conceived by Adam Twine, the pioneer behind the neighbouring Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative, built in 2011 and registered for the UK feed-in tariffs. It has a capacity of 5 MWP.
Westmill Solar Co-operative acquired the solar park in October 2012, under an option agreement with the original developers. It raised the necessary finance through public and private share offers and a senior debt bond with a pension fund.
Westmill solar park is in the United Kingdom located on a site of 30 acres near to Watchfield, on the Wiltshire/Oxfordshire border, just off the A420. The site adjoins that of the Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative.
The solar power plant has over 21,000 solar panels [1] and has been operational since July 2011.
When acquired by the Co-operative, it was the largest community-owned photovoltaic power station in the world. [2]
The Co-operative invited members through a public share offer, launched in June 2012. Despite the tight timetable caused by the expiry date on the option, [3] the issue was 50% over-subscribed, [4] when it closed at the end of July. This raised £4m from c. 1,650 members. [5]
An additional c. £2m was raised by a private placement of B-Shares, mainly from members who had subscribed to the original issue.
The Co-operative raised the balance of funding required in the form of a 23½-year senior debt bond. This was arranged with the Lancashire County Council Pension Fund, [6] in what was believed to be the first major funding by a local authority in community-owned energy infrastructure. [7]
Renewable energy plays an important and growing role in the energy system of the European Union. The Europe 2020 strategy included a target of reaching 20% of gross final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, and at least 32% by 2030. The EU27 reached 22% in 2020, up from 9.6% in 2004. These figures are based on energy use in all its forms across all three main sectors, the heating and cooling sector, the electricity sector, and the transport sector.
Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:
Baywind Energy Co-operative was the first co-operative to own wind turbines in the United Kingdom.
Watchfield is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse in on the edge of southwest Oxfordshire, southern England, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Highworth in neighbouring Wiltshire. Watchfield is about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Shrivenham. Both villages used to be on the main road between Oxford and Swindon, which is now the A420 road. The Vale of White Horse was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes administratively transferred it to Oxfordshire.
Solar power represented a very small part of electricity production in the United Kingdom until the 2010s when it increased rapidly, thanks to feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidies and the falling cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels.
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Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative Ltd is a community-owned Industrial and Provident Society that owns 100% of the Westmill Wind Farm which is an onshore wind farm near the village of Watchfield in the Vale of White Horse, England. It has five 1.3 MW wind turbines erected in a line along the disused runway of the former RAF Watchfield. The wind farm has a power output of up to 6.5 MW, projected to produce as much electricity in a year as used by more than 2,500 homes. The turbines were erected in 8 days and the first fully month of generation was March 2008. It has an open day usually in June each year.
The energy sector in Hawaii has rapidly adopted solar power due to the high costs of electricity, and good solar resources, and has one of the highest per capita rates of solar power in the United States. Hawaii's imported energy costs, mostly for imported petroleum and coal, are three to four times higher than the mainland, so Hawaii has motivation to become one of the highest users of solar energy. Hawaii was the first state in the United States to reach grid parity for photovoltaics. Its tropical location provides abundant ambient energy.
A community solar project, farm or garden is a solar power installation that accepts capital from and provides output credit and tax benefits to multiple customers, including individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and other investors. Participants typically invest in or subscribe to a certain kW capacity or kWh of remote, electrical production. The farm's power output is credited to investors in proportion to their investment, with adjustments to reflect ongoing changes in capacity, technology, costs and electricity rates. Community solar provides direct access to the renewable energy to customers who cannot install it themselves. Companies, cooperatives, governments or non-profits operate the farms.
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system designed for the supply of merchant power. They are differentiated from most building-mounted and other decentralised solar power because they supply power at the utility level, rather than to a local user or users. The generic expression utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project.
Philip Rowland Wolfe MBE is one of the pioneers of the British renewable energy sector.
The U.S. state of Arkansas is a significant producer of natural gas and a minor producer of petroleum.
Energy4All facilitates the creation and development of community energy in the United Kingdom, based on the experience gained in the creation of the UK's first wind co-op, Baywind Energy Co-operative. It has gone on to raise over £40m on behalf of the co-operatives and community benefit societies through community share offerings.
Westmill Woodland Burial Ground is a green burial ground in the Vale of White Horse on the border of Oxfordshire with Wiltshire in southern England. In the distance, the Uffington White Horse, an Iron Age horse carved into the white chalk on the Berkshire Downs, can be seen to the southeast.
Energix Renewable Energies Ltd. is a power producer specializing in renewable energy, currently active mainly in the field of Photovoltaics and Wind power. Energix is a public company traded in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since May 2011.
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