Ripple Energy made a few waves a couple of years ago with a consumer-owned wind farm, the first of its kind in Britain. This month they have launched a solar park along similar lines, and you can now buy into the scheme. Usually community energy involves profit-sharing. You buy into a cooperative, and you get a share of the revenues as the wind farm or solar park generates electricity. But here Owners get savings on their energy bills instead, depending on the share they own. The power is still delivered through the grid and the discount is organised through participating utility companies – but you own that solar panel, so the energy it produces is yours, even if it isn’t attached to your roof. it’s much cheaper to buy five or six panels on a solar farm than it is to have the same number installed on your home. One downside to co-ownership is that because it still relies on the grid to provide electricity to owner’s homes, they still have to pay standing charges and supplier costs.
— source earthbound.report, rippleenergy.com | Apr 26, 2023