Remote solar farm investment?

runswithascript

Is there a way for someone without roof or land access to invest in solar equipment? I would like to start by generating approximately 3000W. I can look at a regular lease of land to store the panels but I expect that would soon eat away benefit and there would be a risk of equipment theft.

I am hoping there might be some kind of community or government scheme I could get involved with?

the_amazing_raisin

I imagine the simplest and easiest way would be to invest in a solar farm company, then you get a share of the profits as a dividend and if the company goes up in value you can sell your shares for a profit

Big Lar

What you could do is look into investing in a Solar Farm company as @the_amazing_raisin mentioned above, a lot of them generate funding by going down the EIIS route, you would get tax relief on your investment over a 4/5yr term and they would pay a 10% dividend on the return. Most of them would be min €10k investment.

Its considered high risk investment so be careful where you invest.

Water John

Not sure why it should be high risk? It's new to Ireland may be the reason. The wind industry hasn't had any major failure. The solar farm project should be based on the guaranteed purchasing price.

daheff

there are listed Solar investments you can also buy into. Foresight Solar Fund ltd in the UK is one such company. Not financial advise, do your own research etc.

something like that may be an easier way to get the exposure you want?

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120801313#Comment_120801313

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/29/huge-nebraska-solar-park-completely-smashed-to-pieces-by-one-single-hailstorm/

Weather events and the vagaries of government policies.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058303340/remote-solar-farm-investment

What exactly is your aim here. Generating Electricty for your own use, or investment ?

runswithascript

Thanks for the input. I had thought there were no replies but it seems the new boards.ie does not sending email notifications and I am still trying to work if I can enable them.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120803132#Comment_120803132

I would like to generate my own electricity for my own small business use but if there were a surplus I would be happy to use it for my home or sell it to the grid.

My main query is if there is a way that someone who does not have access to land could still make a one time investment of approximately €10K in some form of renewable and eliminate or reduce their own electricity bill in the form of energy credits or similar?

runswithascript

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120798312#Comment_120798312

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120801254#Comment_120801254

I did search for Solar Farms and a place called community power came up. Other than Google is there a good way to find these businesses?

Actually dividends payment can work, though I had been hoping there was a way to receive energy credits so that it is almost like I have the source, whether panels or wind, running at my location and I am plugged into it.

Is solar the way to go rather than wind?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120803005#Comment_120803005

Thanks I will check them out. Could you tell me how you heard about them?

graememk

Nothing like that here, but there is stuff starting in the UK

https://youtu.be/65rlHr6ey4I

It's with octopus energy too, one of the most agile energy companies in the market over there.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120814154#Comment_120814154

So to get more of an idea if your circumstances, do you have a house (or some other building) that you can put solar panels on?

If so then this is the place to start. For example by putting rooftop solar in your house you'll lower your energy bills significantly and also make money by selling electricity to the grid. Last month for example my electricity bill was around-€4, an overall profit

As a domestic customer, there's limits on how much energy you can export and any income is liable for tax. However there is a €200 tax free allowance per person who contributes to the bill

Since you mentioned a small business, there's possibilities there as well. It probably depends a lot on what your business does and where it's located.

For example if you work out of a home office then you probably couldn't claim a home solar setup as a business expense since only a fraction of the energy feeds the house

However if you have something like an outbuilding which is the business premises then you can possibly mount solar panels on the roof there as well

I'm pretty sure there's plenty of grants or tax incentives for businesses to get solar, but I'll admit I don't know much about how they work

I do know the limits for selling electricity to the grid can be a lot higher for businesses, but you need to pay a fee up front and you might not get the same rate

If your business in on the same grid connection as your house then it's technically possible to feed power from one building to the other, however this is a pretty big investment as it requires specific grid isolation in the event of a power failure

As an investment, they do involve a lot of upfront costs, possibly more than your €10k budget depending on what your goals are.

There's also the sunk cost issues, you can generally change your mind and sell shares without significant penalty but you can't change your mind after installing solar without incurring some costs

However unlike buying shares, you'll see immediate benefits from installing solar panels from day 1, rather than waiting for a commercial solar farm to be built and start generating a profit

Personally my priorities would be something like as follows: 1) Reduce energy usage, 2) shift usage to electricity rather than fossil fuel sources, 3) install as much solar on my house as I can to cover my domestic usage, 4) do the same for my business, 5) look at investing in commercial renewable companies

Sorry for the messy list but whenever I use boards list feature it goes badly wrong 😅

runswithascript

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120814259#Comment_120814259

That really is amazing and the kind of thing I was hoping to find here.

runswithascript

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120814351#Comment_120814351

A lot of great info there!

It is great that you were able to completely eliminate your energy bills! I would love to do that but unfortunately I am in a ground floor apartment for now though hope to move in the not too distant future and I may have more options in terms of roof access then.

Which panels did you go for, and can you approximately quantify the output from one panel on average? How many did you get and how much space is required? Do you use a battery to store energy for days when there is less sun or perhaps what you sell back to the grid covers times of the year when you have to pay for electricity?

I find the new boards cumbersome also, I cannot cut and paste quotes around my post when multi-quoting.

daheff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120814190#Comment_120814190

Randomly searching LSE website for something else & stumbled across them

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120814462#Comment_120814462

Yeah apartments are tricky, I've seen a few duplexes nearby that got solar thermal tubes fitted to the roof, so there's some options available

If you've a south facing balcony you can throw a few lightweight panels out there, won't get much but it might cover your base load for a low investment

I'd suggest checking out the monthly output thread on this forum, as well as the solar Q&A, and battery options threads. There's an absolute wealth of information here plus loads of very helpful people (who know a lot more than me 😂)

In my own case, we covered the south facing roof of the house with panels, as many as the building regs would allow. We got 15x 420W Jinko panels plus a 6kW inverter and 10kWh battery.

It's served us well so far, has been covering almost all of our usage for the past couple of months. Last month we imported 21kWh from the grid, compared to 810kWh for the same period last year

As for selling electricity to the grid, we have an old day/night meter so we get an estimated export amount per month. The goal then becomes to use as much as possible and export the minimum amount of energy

We'll be moved to smart meters eventually which will actually measure the export amount. That'll probably change the math somewhat since instead of getting a steady income it'll be a lot of export in summer and almost none in winter

unkel

@runswithascript - "unfortunately I am in a ground floor apartment"

Even if you don't own the apartment, every apartment complex has a management company run by the owners, into which all owners pay money and from which common bills are paid, and also investments. You could convince the management company to install solar PV.

In the meantime, if you have any sort of balcony, you could install a micro PV system on your balcony. Basically typically one PV panel connected to a micro inverter. Any generation is coming straight off your bill and you can bring the system to your next gaff