We have had a lot of recent interest in how the turbine is operating and whether we are on target
to produce the return on investment as forecast.
The turbine has been producing electricity since the inauguration party
at the beginning of April 2003 which many of you attended.
By the end of the year we had nine months of production, although six months of this was during
the low wind speed period (summertime) with a number of days having no wind at all.
We are anticipating sending out dividend cheques during February 2004
once the accounts have been finalised and the AGM has taken place. We
will hold the AGM on Saturday 7th February 2004.
 Turbine
details and information
The turbine is owned by 52 shareholders, 49 of whom come from the Dyfi
Valley, 1 who lives in Lancaster and Baywind Energy Co-operative and the
Energy Savings Trust.
The Dividend from the Energy Savings Trust Investment goes into a Community
Energy Fund for Energy Efficiency measures within the Dyfi Valley.
The Total cost of the turbine was £83,555; £37,500 of which was raised
from the share offer and £46,055 of which came from grant funding (ERDF,
Scottish Green Power Trust and Energy Savings Trust).
Bro-Dyfi has a 15 year power purchase agreement with the Centre for Alternative
Technology, whom purchase the first 34,000Kwh of production for 6.5p/kWh
and the rest for 4p/kWh.
We are anticipating the annual production to be in the region of 163,500kWh
based on long-term data from CAT for the MS4 (600kW) wind turbine site.
EIS relief
If you invested over £500 in BDCR, you can now apply for EIS tax relief
on your investmentrelief. We are in the process of completing are registration
for EISrelief.If you haven't already claimed the relief on your tax return
please give Vicky a call on 01654 703382 for an EIS claim form (equivalent
to 20% tax rebate). EIS relief is not available for shares in kind.
Share Certificates
Anyone who hasn't received their share certificate, please contact John
Harrison on 01970 832788 to get it posted on to you. A number of your
contact details appear to have changed as a number of certificates have
been returned in the post.
Production and operation
The table below shows the production to date month by month, with a total
production by the end of October of 43,512kWh, with nearly 13,000kWh being
produced in October alone! The capacity factor during October was 95%
with 5% of down-time being caused by grid outages.
The turbine has produced substantially more electricity than CAT has
used in May, June, July and August with the surplus being exported to
the grid.
The turbine is operated and maintained by CAT under a monitoring and
maintenance agreement.
This will involve day to day monitoring of the turbine, monthly reporting
and checks and bi-annual servicing.
We have also put in place a 5 year warranty agreement with CAT which
will reduce the annual running costs to BDCR over the first 5 years.
We have also purchased £4,500 pounds worth of spares from Vestas to cover
us against any eventualities that may arise over the coming years.
However, aside from grid problems and outages, which has been partially
corrected by the installation of an active power factor correction system,
the turbine has been operating fantastically with no other major problems.
CAT is hoping to have rectified the grid problems within the next few
weeks.
 Inauguration
party
The inauguration party for the Vestas V17 75kW wind turbine was a great
day with over 70 people joining in with the celebrations on the hill.
The turbine named 'Pwer Pobl' by Nat Taplin started production in the
afternoon after being officially switched on by Cynog Davis and Cllr Williams.
Cynog gave an excellent speech as his last public duty prior to his
retirement as an AM.
He spoke of how many villages had been supplied by individual hydro schemes
when he was young and how this turbine had continued this tradition today.
The children had great fun painting the turbine tower and there was a
turbine painting competition with prizes going to everyone who entered
one of their inspiring paintings.
Thank you to everyone who attended for making it such an enjoyable day!
BDCR inter-active web-site and info board!
We are currently investigating the costs and practicalities of establishing
a web-site for the community wind turbine.
We are looking at the possibility of having a live-web cam of the turbine
and production figures available. We hope to let you know the out-come
of this at the AGM!
We are also in the process of commissioning an info board on the wind
turbine to go at the base of the machine, along-side a picnic table, which
has been kindly offered to us by the Forestry Commission.
 The
Energy savings fund
The Dyfi-Valley Community Energy Fund has been recently formed and is
being administrated by ecodyfi.
The fund is financed by existing money from the MS4 wind turbine and
30% of annual profits from the BDCR community wind turbine.
The aim of the fund is to "Reduce carbon emissions in the Dyfi Valley,
to combat climate change".
During the first year Corris and Glantwymyn areas will be targeted.
Long-term aims and actions of the fund include:
-
Energy champions. Train up community members to take practical advice
to their communities.
-
Give away compact fluorescent lamps (CFL's).
-
Invest in community halls or schools.
-
Give away free bus passes.
-
Convert community mini bus to Biodiesel.
-
Subsidise logs.
-
Subsidise insulation materials.
-
Schools change to green tariff.
-
Renewable energy system kit for schools.
-
Increase take up of HEEs - energy audit for those on benefits
-
Increase take up of home energy check.
To launch the fund, two public meetings were held on how to save energy,
save money and stay warm in your home. All attendees received a free energy
saving light-bulb, courtesy of the Dyfi-Valley Community Energy Fund.
The dates of the meetings were Tuesday 18th November - Cwmllinau Hall
- 7.30pm; Wednesday 19th November - Corris Primary School - 7.30pm.
Please contact Tom O' Kane
of ecodyfi for further details on 01654 703965.
The Fund is seeking Energy Champions within the Dyfi Valley to to take
practical advice to their communities. Training will be given to energy
champions at CAT. If you are interested in becoming an 'energy champion'
please contact Tom at ecodyfi on the number above.
 Future
developments
BDCR are currently in discussions regarding the possible purchase of
a local turbine by shareholders.
If successful there will be a share offer in the new year.
BDCR are looking at using possible grant funding, in addition to local
shareholder equity in the project, to establish a community RE powered
transport fund for Machynlleth and the surrounding areas and provide core
funding for ecodyfi. ecodyfi have already expressed an interest
in administrating such a scheme.
If you are interested in investing in new RE projects, the Renewable
Energy Investment Club will have new share offers open for investment
in the new year.
See www.reic.co.uk
(members page) for further details.
Employment
We are currently seeking a part-time administrator to run BDCR on a day
to day basis.
The job involves invoicing CAT for electricity sales, keeping accounts,
paying bills, e-mailing shareholders, filling in VAT and tax returns and
organising the AGM.
The post will be numerated with a nominal payment of £300 /year. Could
anyone who is interested in this post please contact John Harrison on
01970 832788.
Notification of the AGM - Saturday 7th February 2004
Notice is given that the second Annual General Meeting of members will
be held at 10.30 on Saturday 7th February 2004 in the Pantperthog Village
Hall for the following purposes:
-
To approve the minutes of the previous AGM held on 5th April 2003.
To receive the annual accounts and balance sheet for the year ending
31st Dec 03.
-
To allow the existing management committee to retire and to elect
a new committee in accordance with rule 35 of the co-operative. The
existing committee is eligible for re-election.
-
To approve distribution of funds.
-
To resolve that BDCR does not require Auditors.
-
To hear the Co-Chair's report.
-
End of AGM
Tea and refreshments
Ty Bro Ddyfi, 52 Heol Maengwyn Machynlleth SY20 8DT 01654 703965 www.ecodyfi.org.uk
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