FAQs for potential members/investors
Q: If I invested £500, for example, what sort of interest would I be likely to get back?
A. We aim to pay between 4 - 4.7%. Interest in many savings accounts are below that amount. Directors each year will propose a level of interest payment and seek members approval at the annual general meeting.
Q: How secure is this dividend payment and my investment?
A: We have a fixed 20-year income for each solar PV installation from the government which is the basis of our payments, and we have used conservative assumptions about our income, and we judge the risks to be low, so your payments and investment are quite secure. However there is no guarantee. What may impact on this in the future is other installations that the Society undertakes. We intend in the future to support other projects with similar aims, objectives and returns. These will be scrutinised to aim for a comparable level of return, and we will make sure members are happy with the projects their money is reinvested in. But there will be future risks involved in those projects, and the performance of these may affect our ability to pay dividends. Please be aware that although we judge it to be very unlikely, there is no legal guarantee that you will get any interest or any of your original investment back, because we are not covered by the Financial Ombudsman scheme which protects investments in banks and building societies
Q: Is there a limit to how long I can have these shares?
A: Yes.
We are only guaranteed payments from the Feed-in Tariff scheme for a certain number of years. For our solar PV share offer for the preschool in 2012 and the domestic installations in 2015, the period is 20 years, but the Government may decide to reduce the time period for future installations. We have to ensure that we return all the shares to our investors before the end of the guarantee period, otherwise we would have to continue paying a dividend on any remaining shares without having any income to fund the payments. For this reason we have made gradual capital paybacks with our 6=monthly dividend payments for all of our installations, so that members capital will be completely paid back at the end of the 20 year Feed in Tariff period.. If we have other share offers available at the time we return the shares, investors may choose to reinvest their money in the new scheme
Q: Can I take the money out again?
A: Investors can withdraw their shares if the organisation can afford to pay them.
What does that mean in reality? We get income from the Feed-in Tariff on a quarterly basis, and part of that income could be used to give an investor back some or all of their investment, depending on the amount. However we would prefer you not to withdraw unless absolutely necessary. We operate on a very low margin, and we only have small reserves, so you might have to wait months or years before our cash-flow would allow a repayment. Furthermore, repaying one investor would probably mean that regular dividend/capital payments to other members were delayed. You wouldn't have to withdraw all your shares if you want to withdraw some money but remain a member of the cooperative. Read our share offer document for full details of the investment.
Q: What happens to the panels at the end of the 20 year period? A: At the end of each FITS agreement, those panels will in most cases become the property of the roof owner. They will still continue to generate electricity for the roof-owner, and so reduce their electricity bills.
Further questions
If you have a question that hasn't been answered above, please get in touch:
[email protected]
or phone Helen Gundry on 01751 432447
Q: If I invested £500, for example, what sort of interest would I be likely to get back?
A. We aim to pay between 4 - 4.7%. Interest in many savings accounts are below that amount. Directors each year will propose a level of interest payment and seek members approval at the annual general meeting.
Q: How secure is this dividend payment and my investment?
A: We have a fixed 20-year income for each solar PV installation from the government which is the basis of our payments, and we have used conservative assumptions about our income, and we judge the risks to be low, so your payments and investment are quite secure. However there is no guarantee. What may impact on this in the future is other installations that the Society undertakes. We intend in the future to support other projects with similar aims, objectives and returns. These will be scrutinised to aim for a comparable level of return, and we will make sure members are happy with the projects their money is reinvested in. But there will be future risks involved in those projects, and the performance of these may affect our ability to pay dividends. Please be aware that although we judge it to be very unlikely, there is no legal guarantee that you will get any interest or any of your original investment back, because we are not covered by the Financial Ombudsman scheme which protects investments in banks and building societies
Q: Is there a limit to how long I can have these shares?
A: Yes.
We are only guaranteed payments from the Feed-in Tariff scheme for a certain number of years. For our solar PV share offer for the preschool in 2012 and the domestic installations in 2015, the period is 20 years, but the Government may decide to reduce the time period for future installations. We have to ensure that we return all the shares to our investors before the end of the guarantee period, otherwise we would have to continue paying a dividend on any remaining shares without having any income to fund the payments. For this reason we have made gradual capital paybacks with our 6=monthly dividend payments for all of our installations, so that members capital will be completely paid back at the end of the 20 year Feed in Tariff period.. If we have other share offers available at the time we return the shares, investors may choose to reinvest their money in the new scheme
Q: Can I take the money out again?
A: Investors can withdraw their shares if the organisation can afford to pay them.
What does that mean in reality? We get income from the Feed-in Tariff on a quarterly basis, and part of that income could be used to give an investor back some or all of their investment, depending on the amount. However we would prefer you not to withdraw unless absolutely necessary. We operate on a very low margin, and we only have small reserves, so you might have to wait months or years before our cash-flow would allow a repayment. Furthermore, repaying one investor would probably mean that regular dividend/capital payments to other members were delayed. You wouldn't have to withdraw all your shares if you want to withdraw some money but remain a member of the cooperative. Read our share offer document for full details of the investment.
Q: What happens to the panels at the end of the 20 year period? A: At the end of each FITS agreement, those panels will in most cases become the property of the roof owner. They will still continue to generate electricity for the roof-owner, and so reduce their electricity bills.
Further questions
If you have a question that hasn't been answered above, please get in touch:
[email protected]
or phone Helen Gundry on 01751 432447