Finance for wind turbines
Finance
Clearly, buying a wind turbine is a substantial purchase, and we aim to help here. There are a number of approaches possible. Note that the situation is a bit unclear at present, due to the introduction of Feed-in tariffs (FiTs). Previously, the Government provided grants as a means of encouraging investment in wind energy. FiTs inverts the approach, by paying you over the term of ownership, but it means you need to make the initial investment.
There are a number of imaginative ways to raise finance for a wind turbine. Banks have not traditionally been a source of funds, but this may change with the income possible from FiTs. There has been a proposal for 'green mortgages', which would be loans attached to the house. The loans, likely to average between £10,000 and £15,000 for each home, would be secured by a charge on a property, repayable over periods of up to 25 years. If a resident sold the house, the charge would stay with the new owner. This makes sense as the wind turbine has also stayed with the new owner.
Another approach is to try to garner interest within the community. Community owned enterprises can benefit from an exciting new government-backed initiative which aims to stimulate investment through community share and bond issues. Instead of turning to the private sector and wealthy individuals for support, community investment is about engaging communities to invest in themselves. By harnessing the collective investment powers of whole communities, large amounts of capital can be raised in small sums from members of the community.
The following are possible sources of finance :
- NatWest Bank - Energy and Agricultural Specialists
- Co-operative Bank
- Peregrine Finance
- Carbon Trust, but this is limited to small businesses
- Bridgegreen Environmental Finance, Wind Turbine Finance Packages – Domestic and Light Commercial
- Community shares
- Co-operative bank - Balnamoon Renewables Ltd
- Energy Saving Trust
- Further source of information on finance
There are grants available for farmers via the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), which is scheduled to run until 2013. However, the situation is a little unclear as to whether these are available after the introduction of Feed-in Tariffs.
