The BroomPower Share offer is now closed. We reached our £900,000 target on 28th Aug 2016. A HUGE thank you to all our investors.
How BroomPower will Make Money
BroomPower Hydro will cost £900,000 to fund and the intention is to raise funds through Donations and a Community Share Offer. The electricity generated by the scheme will depend on local rainfall levels and will be sold to the National Grid at the Feed-in Tariff which was fixed in Sept 2015 and is guaranteed for 20 years. After 20 years, the electricity will be sold at the prevailing commercial tariff.
How to Invest – Community Shares
For full details of how Share Offer will operate, please read the LCR Share Offer Document and see our Frequently Asked Questions leaflet.
Community Shares can be purchased by completing the Share Form below and either including a cheque payable to Lochbroom Community Renewables Ltd. or making a Bank Transfer to the account number listed on the form. Please include your name and postcode in the transfer description so it can be linked to your form.
Share Form (Individuals) – also use if you wish to invest as a group of individuals or a couple
Share Form (Corporate) – this applies to businesses and community/voluntary organisations.
Online : Microgenius online payment option for investors – UK only (Share Form not required at this time)
Investing from Outside the UK? – Please contact us.
The BroomPower Community Share offer opened on 30th April 2016 and will close on 31st Aug (or earlier if the full amount has been reached). The minimum investment is £300 (due to related administration costs) and investors can invest any amount from £300 up to the maximum of £90,000. Group investments, investments on behalf of children and grandchildren and payment by instalments will all be accepted – please contact us if you wish to discuss your investment.
Each investor (or group) will receive one vote regardless of the amount invested and the level of your investment will remain confidential. If for any reason the scheme does not commence, then all payments will be returned to investors by 30th Sept 2016.
The level of interest paid on Community Shares will be recommended by the Board each year and voted on by members. The target level is 4%, but this may vary and no interest will be paid until generation has begun.
Investors should expect to maintain their investment for at least five years and can request that their capital be repaid in full or in part any time after that. All requests will be considered equally by the Board and the intention is to repay approx. 1/20th of the capital each year of generation. Under exceptional circumstances, capital may be repaid earlier than 3 years at the discretion of the Board. Once an investor is repaid in full, that investor’s membership will end.
If you are in any doubt as to the actions you should take you are recommended to seek your own, independent financial advice.
The income generated by BroomPower is forecast to be in the region of £90,000 per year and will be used to:
- pay the running and maintenance costs of the Hydro
- repay the CARES loan (and Commercial Loan, if any)
- pay back approx. 1/20th of the share capital per annum
- pay interest on the Community Shares
- generate a surplus
What is a Community Benefit Fund?
The surplus from the BroomPower scheme will be gifted to UCT and will be paid into a Community Benefit Fund. The details for the process of disbursement of this fund will be determined by a full Community Consultation prior to the surplus being generated.
All communities are different, but here are some examples of the projects that have been done by other small communities:
Eday in Orkney http://www.edaypartnership.org/projects
Udny in Aberdeenshire http://udnycommunitytrust.org.uk
Morven in Argyll http://www.morvern.org/development
Further Information
The Business Plan contains additional technical information and financial details of the BroomPower project and the LCR Company Rules and Registration describe how LCR operates.
Donations
Donations are most welcome and can be made by sending a cheque to:
Lochbroom Community Renewables Ltd.
The Village Hall,
7 Market Street,
Ullapool,
IV26 2XE
Cheques should be made payable to Lochbroom Community Renewables Ltd.
More About Community Shares