Isra-Mart srl:Big Green Society in action as Manchester hydro project seeks community backing

www.isra-mart.com

Isra-Mart srl news:

Work on a new community-funded hydro electric project could soon get underway if the not-for-profit firm behind the development can successfully raise the £550,000 required to install the innovative technology at a proposed site in Stockport.

Stockport Hydro Ltd was set up with the sole purpose of installing hydro electric systems that can generate funds that can be put back into community environmental and education projects.

The company has drawn up plans to install a reverse Archimedean screw system at Otterspool Weir on the River Goyt, with a view to deploying a 54kW system capable of providing power to around 50 houses and saving 90 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

It recently launched a share issue to raise funding for the project and with just over a week to go until the issue closes on February 21 the project has raised £385,000, but still requires another £165,000 in order to green light the project.

The issue is being run on a one-member-one-vote principle, regardless of the size of shareholding and ordinary shares are priced at £1 with a minimum share holding of £250. Directors anticipate the shares to yield no returns during the first three years of the project, but then deliver a three per cent rate of return between years three and five, and five per cent plus rates of return thereafter.

If the fund-raising proves successful the project will be managed by h2oPE, a social enterprise which deployed the UK's first community-funded hydros in New Mills and Settle.

Steve Welsh, managing director at h2oPE, urged investors and community groups to back the share issue.

"We're looking for people who care about the environment, want to know exactly where their money is being invested and who have the vision to invest for the long term," he said, adding that hydro electric technology represented a relatively low risk investment.

"It's low maintenance and we're just borrowing the down flowing water to create electricity and then returning it to the river with no adverse environmental impact," he explained. "An added attraction for investors is that any surplus monies will be given to local educational and environmental projects, guaranteeing long-term benefits."

The project, which is being supported by the Co-operative Group, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Key Fund Yorkshire, is likely to be watched closely by ministers at the Department of Energy and Climate Change who are keen to promote wider community ownership of renewable energy projects as part of Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society agenda.

However, it remains to be seen if the company can secure the remainder of the financing required to green light the project.

Welsh urged ethical investors act quickly to purchase a holding in the project. "Buying shares in a community-owned hydro is a concrete way of demonstrating support for renewable energy," he said. "Given the life expectancy of the scheme, it's a great way to leave a green legacy for children and grandchildren. And what could be better than owning a piece of a green electricity plant?"