Clean Power

Published on February 23rd, 2012 | by Zachary Shahan

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UK’s 1st Employee-Owned Solar Power Plant Installed

February 23rd, 2012 by Zachary Shahan 

 

The Eden Project has now completed the first known employee-owned solar power plant in the UK, a 50-kilowatt PV array that includes 200 solar panels.

Familiar with the Eden Project? I wasn’t either…. The Eden Project is apparently an educational charity in Cornwall in the UK, and a pretty cool-looking one at that. Here’s a video of the Eden Project if you want to learn more about that before getting on with the news:

“Ebico, the Witney-based social enterprise that is the UK’s only not-for-profit electricity supplier, lent money to a new company that put 200 panels on the roofs of some of Eden’s storage buildings,” the UK’s Carbon Commentary writes.

“Employees are now able to buy shares in the new business and the proceeds of this unique offer will be used to pay back Ebico. Savers putting in as little as £200 each will share in the feed-in tariff income for the next 25 years. Returns are projected to be over 10% per year for small investors.”

For more info on this project or other potential projects like it, as well as an interesting discussion of the UK’s feed-in tariff program, check out the Carbon Commentary post.

Photo via Carbon Commentary

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Zachary Shahan

Tags: employee owned solar, quickies, UK, uk solar energy, uk solar projects

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

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