Triodos launches ₤ 4.7 m community renewable resource bond offer

• Triodos Bank UK is introducing a ₤ 4.7 million community renewable resource bond deal through its crowdfunding system for Empower Community Foundation, which owns 2 solar farms.

Both 5MW solar farms had by Empower Community Foundation lie near Salibsury in England and also Arbroath in Scotland. Both were completed in 2016.

The two farms were initially brought right into community possession utilizing swing loan to fund the purchase, with the majority of this having actually been re-financed making use of a safeguarded long-lasting loan from Triodos Bank UK.

The crowdfunding bond will settle the remainder of the finance as well as protected long-lasting funding for the continuing to be life of the solar farms.

The refinancing is to be at a reduced expense than the existing temporary borrowing, Triodos said, with this to raise the amount of money offered for community projects. Community repayments are forecast to be around ₤ 1.3 million over the 16-year regard to the bond.

There is a ₤ 50 minimal investment, with the bond eligible to be held in a Triodos Innovative Finance ISA. The bond pays 4.25% gross rate of interest annually, with the rates of interest to climb with rising cost of living annually.

Alex Grayson, trustee of Empower Community Foundation, stated: "Building strength in neighborhood communities is what we are established to do. We want communities to gain from a velocity of the shift to a decentralised power economic climate.

" This bond will make sure that these 2 community solar projects have funding in position for their continuing to be life, implying that each solar park will certainly create even more earnings for the regional community to satisfy local requirements."

In 2020, Triodos Bank UK launched an ₤ 850,000 renewable resource bond deal on its crowdfunding system to finance the functional 5MW Ferry Farm solar site, which was brought into full community ownership the same year by Ferry Farm Community Benefit Society.

At the same time, last year Triodos Bank UK supplied a lending to the UK's biggest community-owned solar farm, the 19.2 MW Ray Valley Solar Park, aiding it to be fully-financed.