This is the first project on Abundance to issue an Income Growth Debenture. An Income Growth Debenture is a long-term unsecured certificate that gives the holder the right to receive a defined amount of interest income each year (for Oakapple Berwickshire 3.3% for the first year – excluding the 0.4% Pioneer Bonus), which increases annually (for Oakapple Berwickshire by 3.3%) for the life of the investment. The amount paid out is not linked to the amount of energy produced and is paid in addition to repayment of your capital in the form of regular Cash Returns.
Oakapple Berwickshire has been set up to own and manage solar PV systems which will be installed on domestic rooftops across Berwickshire. The project will be comprised of a portfolio of up to 749 roof-mounted solar PV systems, with a total capacity of 2,595kW. The properties are all social housing owned by Berwickshire Housing Association located across Berwickshire, including Duns, Eyemouth and Coldstream. Oakapple Berwickshire will earn revenues from the Government’s Feed-in Tariff scheme.
The Oakapple Berwickshire project is looking to raise up to £3.1m and is being developed by Oakapple Renewable Energy and Edison Energy. The management team has considerable experience of roof-top solar PV projects and this is the second project for Oakapple Renewable Energy on the Abundance platform.
This offer is an opportunity to invest and receive an effective rate of return of 7.5% before tax and after fees over 20 years.
Berwickshire Housing Association and the tenants of the social housing have nothing to pay to have the solar panels installed. The social housing tenants can use as much of the electricity from their solar panels as they need, for free. This can help significantly reduce their electricity bills by around 20-30%.
For solar PV installations smaller than 30 kWp, there is no requirement to install an export meter and the amount of electricity exported to the national grid is estimated at 50% of electricity generated. This means that the amount of electricity used by the social housing tenant does not affect the amount of revenue the project receives.