Sheffield community-owned clean energy company launches shares in first of five power-producing projects
Sheffield Energy Works needs to raise £600,000 to fund over 500 solar panels and an anaerobic digester at Sheffield’s Cliffe House Farm - better known as Our Cow Molly
A Sheffield community-owned clean energy company has launched a share offer to fund the first of five power-producing projects across the city.
Sheffield Energy Works (SEW) needs to raise £600,000 to fund over 500 solar panels and an anaerobic digester at Sheffield’s Cliffe House Farm, better known as Our Cow Molly.
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Located in the tiny village of Dungworth, four miles from Sheffield city centre, it produces and delivers its own bottled milk and since 2007, ice cream.
However the rampant surge in energy costs of the last three-four years – during which at one stage it cost £4,000 a month just to run one building - has sparked a partnership between owner Eddie Andrew and SEW.
Under phase one of the Our Cow Molly project, the newly-formed community benefit society will fund and install over 500 solar panels and an anaerobic digestor capturing methane from cow swill.
It will sell the electricity produced on-site to the farm, using the revenue to pay back shareholders. SEW director Jonathan Hind described the project as a “win, win” for the farm and the new energy company.
He said: “If you can sell something at the point it’s produced you’re going to get a better price for it. The basic model is avoid selling to the grid because with the feed-in tariff you don’t actually get a lot of money.
“If you sell direct to the customer you can sell at an equivalent price - you’re cutting out the middle man - but the farm gets the electricity at a slightly cheaper rate and we get a better price from the customer.”
Once the infrastructure is in place for Our Cow Molly phase one, phase two will see the farm become an exporter of energy, generating a surplus in the form of green hydrogen.
This would primarily be used in for example HGVs and buses or heavy construction machinery – a sector known to be very difficult to electrify.
Hydrogen production would be powered mainly by solar and wind electricity, meaning more solar panels and wind turbines using an on-site electrolyser which separates hydrogen from water.
Three more projects in development around the city include a pyrolysis plant on Abbeydale Road, decarbonising and generating electricity on-site at Wentworth Woodhouse and a “virtual power station”.
The latter is a scheme to integrate domestic solar panels and battery systems across Sheffield, to meet surges in energy demand.
Speaking about Our Cow Molly phase one and the share offer, Jonathan said: “Our Cow Molly will use the electricity on-site in all their dairy processing and ice cream and we use the revenue generated to pay back the shareholders.”
Investors will receive four per cent interest on shares which, as Jonathan says, won’t make a “fortune” however he hopes shareholders will be motivated by the “wider” clean energy benefits.
The minimum investment is £5 for a share up to a maximum of £60,000.
Those who buy shares become a member of the company with a say over its future and a vote at the annual general meeting. with equal say regardless of how how may shares bought.
“The farm is our first customer,” said Jonathan. “As they come on-line we’ll be offering shares on the other projects around Sheffield supplying energy to people around Sheffield.
“We’re building an energy company that’s developing projects in Sheffield that are generating electricity and making sure it’s used in Sheffield.
“People like the idea but we need people to invest and to realise this is a community-owned company and it’s genuinely for everyone to get involved with.”
”I’m optimistic but the challenge is to change mindsets - that everyone can invest in this.” To find out more about investing visit Sheffield Energy Works.