Startup Launches a Consumer-Owned Windfarm

Consumers will soon be able to buy stakes in a new wind farm in South Wales and draw on power generated by its turbines to save on their energy bills.

The 2.5MW Graig Fatha windfarm is being developed by startup Ripple Energy to give customers who can’t afford or install home solar panels another means of directly tapping into green electricity. Shares in the wind farm will entitle customers to 25 years of discounted renewable electricity, bought through Octopus Energy and its brand Co-op Energy.

Ripple describes itself as a “clean energy ownership platform,” which will “enable people to own new, large scale wind farms and have the clean, low cost, stable priced power they produce supplied to their homes.”

The typical upfront cost for a participating household will be £1,900 although customers can buy stakes for as little as £250, enough to supply 12.5% of a typical home’s electricity per year for 25 years. A larger investment can entitle customers to 120% of their annual electricity needs for the 25-year term. 

Customers will then switch to Co-op Energy—or stick with Octopus, if they’re already signed up—and receive cheaper electricity when the wind farm comes online next year. Ripple Energy estimates that in an average year they’ll see reductions of up to 26% in their electricity bill. However, given lower power prices, if the wind farm were operational this year, the savings would be just 15%.

The company calculates that owning a stake in the wind farm will be 75% cheaper than installing home solar panels—which typically costs £4,000 to £8,000—and an option for households which rent or live in blocks of flats.

Ripple Energy founder and chief executive Sarah Merrick said: “What could be better than owning a bit of a wind farm to supply your home with renewable, low-cost power. People are ready for change. They want to create a better, cleaner future and we can enable them to do it.”

Around 2,000 customers will be able to join the inaugural windfarm and more 4,500 have already registered interest, according to Ripple. The startup plans to develop further wind farms in the future and has raised nearly £1.2 million to support its ventures.

The energy produced by the Graig Fatha wind farm will be supplied through Co-op Energy and renewable supplier Octopus Energy, which formed a strategic partnership with Co-op last year and took ownership of its supply brands Co-op, Flow and GB Energy. Octopus Energy was recently valued at £1 billion and currently supplies around 1.5 million UK customers.

Co-op Community Energy managing director Tom Hoines said: “The partnership with Ripple is a significant milestone in changing the way in which we power the UK, giving more people the opportunity to directly own how their electricity is generated.”

Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson said: “We’re excited to get to work with Ripple Energy to make this investment more accessible and affordable than ever before. Soon anyone can benefit from the ‘green dividends’ this will provide, offsetting their own energy bills with an investment in the energy grid of the future."