Hydro share offer fully-subscribed in just 72 hours!

Corwen Electricity Co-op are celebrating hitting their share offer target for new hydro scheme.

Long-time Sharenergy client Corwen Electricity Co-op had cause for celebration this week as their latest share offer was fully subscribed in less than three days!

The group was seeking to raise the remaining funds required to complete their second high-head hydro scheme at Bonwm – only a few hundred yards from their Nant y Pigyn scheme which was commissioned in 2016.

“This is a real success story for Corwen Electricity Co-op – to be able to build a second community-owned hydro scheme which will generate revenue for the local community, without the help of Feed-in Tariffs,” said Sharenergy Operations Manager, Joe Bentley. “The speed with which the share offer was filled shows a continuing appetite among ordinary people for this kind of community energy scheme.”

Since the Government’s withdrawal of the Feed-in Tariff many community energy projects have struggled to produce viable business models, even around proven technologies that can generate electricity steadily for much of the year. Significant support from the Welsh government enabled the group to get the scheme to the point of being investor-ready, and the group’s expertise and proven track record from their first project meant that they had no problem raising the shares. Driven by a hardworking and experienced team of directors, the group were even able to raise the shares from within the local and existing community, with no social media or national promotion at all.

“This has been one of the quickest share issues Sharenergy ever been involved with. We congratulate Corwen Electricity Co-op on the success of this project, and we can’t wait to see what they do next!”