May 2023 new share offer press release: (offer closes 19 June 2023)
New community solar project launches at Furze Platt Senior School.
Sub head: MaidEnergy community share offer opens for investment.
MaidEnergy, a not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation introducing renewable energy to some of the borough’s biggest and most-used buildings, launches their latest low carbon share offer for a solar project at Maidenhead’s Furze Platt Senior School on 10 May 2023.
The new share offer will see the installation of 240kW of solar PV on the roof of the school, adding to the existing 35kW installed in 2020. MaidEnergy’s biggest installation to date will provide FPSS with a long-term secure renewable energy supply, at a fixed low cost.
In their eighth project since 2015, MaidEnergy will again open the share offer to local investors for a six-week period to fund the project. The share offer allows investors to purchase shares for £1 each, there are 280,000 shares available to raise the expected funding to deliver the project. The projected annual return on shares is 5%.
Once the funds are secured, the project is launched with a return on investment to shareholders and surplus funds put towards the next project. The project potential has been recognised by the Climate Partnership CIC, which has agreed to provide £40,000 to underwrite the development of large scale solar in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM).
The install funded by this share offer will provide considerable benefit to Furze Platt Senior School, supporting the provision of education to young people. The school will benefit from a donation of shares in MaidEnergy, which will provide income from interest payments and a future cash benefit when the school request to withdraw its share capital. MaidEnergy has offered to donate the panels to the site after 15 years.
The project will provide locally owned renewable energy to serve the community; benefit the environment by lowering CO2 emissions; offer lower energy bills for Furze Platt Senior School; and provide a return for shareholders. Income will be earned from electricity generated by the solar panels and MaidEnergy expect 70% to be sold to the school with the rest exported to the grid. The school will pay a fixed price linked to inflation, while the export price will vary according to market conditions.
To help protect Furze Platt Senior School from excessive energy prices in the future, MaidEnergy is offering to provide power at a nearly 40% discount to the current price for power from the grid, increasing with inflation, and guarantees not to charge more than the price from the grid in future. This has been endorsed by the Education Funding Agency.
MaidEnergy has already financed and installed solar panels on seven community buildings, gaining income for MaidEnergy from the sales of power and the Feed-in Tariff for renewable energy. As generation is well understood, and prices are inflation-linked, MaidEnergy’s income is reasonably predictable. The rapid rise in inflation in 2022 will increase income now and in the long-term, while the addition of 240kWp of solar at Furze Platt will increase overall income by over 40%,
By buying shares, investors join MaidEnergy and help raise money to finance new installations. Each potential installation is assessed by MaidEnergy to ensure it is suitable to deliver a return sufficient to cover operation, maintenance, capital repayment costs and interest to investors.
Local resident and Co-Chair of MaidEnergy Richard Taylor comments, “It’s wonderful to be returning to Furze Platt Senior School for another solar project, our biggest one so far. We need more clean energy in the climate emergency, and we love helping schools in our area to cut their emissions and their bills at once.'
This latest share offer is for 280,000 shares offered at £1 each. This will finance 240kWp of solar PV to be installed on Furze Platt school. The minimum investment is £100 per member and the maximum is £90,000 or such lower amount as takes a member to 10% of the total issued equity. Returns will be calculated according to projected income and expenditure based on a set of assumptions. The projected annual return on shares is 5%, paid annually, and will be capped at the higher of 5% or RPI plus 2%. See https://www.maidenergy.coop/shareoffer2023 for a detailed share pack and the share purchase online form.
About MaidEnergy
MaidEnergy is a community business, democratically run with an asset lock to preserve the solar panels for the community. No remuneration has been paid by the organisation to Directors for their service as Directors. Although Directors can be paid, they have served in a voluntary role. Directors are committed to putting substantial time into the society.
MaidEnergy works by:
Sub head: MaidEnergy community share offer opens for investment.
MaidEnergy, a not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation introducing renewable energy to some of the borough’s biggest and most-used buildings, launches their latest low carbon share offer for a solar project at Maidenhead’s Furze Platt Senior School on 10 May 2023.
The new share offer will see the installation of 240kW of solar PV on the roof of the school, adding to the existing 35kW installed in 2020. MaidEnergy’s biggest installation to date will provide FPSS with a long-term secure renewable energy supply, at a fixed low cost.
In their eighth project since 2015, MaidEnergy will again open the share offer to local investors for a six-week period to fund the project. The share offer allows investors to purchase shares for £1 each, there are 280,000 shares available to raise the expected funding to deliver the project. The projected annual return on shares is 5%.
Once the funds are secured, the project is launched with a return on investment to shareholders and surplus funds put towards the next project. The project potential has been recognised by the Climate Partnership CIC, which has agreed to provide £40,000 to underwrite the development of large scale solar in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM).
The install funded by this share offer will provide considerable benefit to Furze Platt Senior School, supporting the provision of education to young people. The school will benefit from a donation of shares in MaidEnergy, which will provide income from interest payments and a future cash benefit when the school request to withdraw its share capital. MaidEnergy has offered to donate the panels to the site after 15 years.
The project will provide locally owned renewable energy to serve the community; benefit the environment by lowering CO2 emissions; offer lower energy bills for Furze Platt Senior School; and provide a return for shareholders. Income will be earned from electricity generated by the solar panels and MaidEnergy expect 70% to be sold to the school with the rest exported to the grid. The school will pay a fixed price linked to inflation, while the export price will vary according to market conditions.
To help protect Furze Platt Senior School from excessive energy prices in the future, MaidEnergy is offering to provide power at a nearly 40% discount to the current price for power from the grid, increasing with inflation, and guarantees not to charge more than the price from the grid in future. This has been endorsed by the Education Funding Agency.
MaidEnergy has already financed and installed solar panels on seven community buildings, gaining income for MaidEnergy from the sales of power and the Feed-in Tariff for renewable energy. As generation is well understood, and prices are inflation-linked, MaidEnergy’s income is reasonably predictable. The rapid rise in inflation in 2022 will increase income now and in the long-term, while the addition of 240kWp of solar at Furze Platt will increase overall income by over 40%,
By buying shares, investors join MaidEnergy and help raise money to finance new installations. Each potential installation is assessed by MaidEnergy to ensure it is suitable to deliver a return sufficient to cover operation, maintenance, capital repayment costs and interest to investors.
Local resident and Co-Chair of MaidEnergy Richard Taylor comments, “It’s wonderful to be returning to Furze Platt Senior School for another solar project, our biggest one so far. We need more clean energy in the climate emergency, and we love helping schools in our area to cut their emissions and their bills at once.'
This latest share offer is for 280,000 shares offered at £1 each. This will finance 240kWp of solar PV to be installed on Furze Platt school. The minimum investment is £100 per member and the maximum is £90,000 or such lower amount as takes a member to 10% of the total issued equity. Returns will be calculated according to projected income and expenditure based on a set of assumptions. The projected annual return on shares is 5%, paid annually, and will be capped at the higher of 5% or RPI plus 2%. See https://www.maidenergy.coop/shareoffer2023 for a detailed share pack and the share purchase online form.
About MaidEnergy
MaidEnergy is a community business, democratically run with an asset lock to preserve the solar panels for the community. No remuneration has been paid by the organisation to Directors for their service as Directors. Although Directors can be paid, they have served in a voluntary role. Directors are committed to putting substantial time into the society.
MaidEnergy works by:
- Finding community buildings that are interested in cutting carbon emissions
- Raising community finance from people in the local area and throughout the UK, through the issuing and managing of community share schemes, to fund installations
- Providing all relevant legal documents and arranging grid export capability
- Managing the installation and all ongoing maintenance
- Working with sites to maximize financial, environmental, and community benefit
MaidEnergy like to work with our community, one of our Directors recently gave a talk to students ar Eton College and here are their thoughts on MaidEnergy, they perhaps say is better than we do:
“MaidEnergy is a community-led non-profit company focussing upon delivering environmentally-friendly infrastructure to the Maidenhead Area. Their local experience enables them to make decisions that benefit people nearby, giving an atmosphere of ‘giving back’ to the people, encouraging investment for its social value rather than for profit; surely a prerequisite of any successful project. This benefit, however, is not merely through the financial savings that essential hubs, such as Thames Valley Athletics Centre, can make using modern technology such as solar panels. It also comes with Environmental Merit, by reducing carbon emissions in our area, and thus helping in a local way to combat the Climate Crisis – arguably one of the best ways so to do. Berkshire, containing Heathrow Airport and bordering upon London, suffers badly from carbon emissions – and the small steps that MaidEnergy delivers can help to tackle this: for the community, and, indirectly, for the rest of the world.” Alexander, Year 10
“The Thames Valley Athletics Centre (TVAC) is owned and run by the Datchet and Eton Leisure (DEL) and built on Eton College land. The building is heated by 8 ageing gas boilers, and MaidEnergy has proposed a fantastic Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) to replace them. From a community share offer, it has raised £196,000 to complete the installation of this project which has been supported in part by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). There are many benefits of GSHPs not least that for every kW of electricity needed to heat a building, over 4kW of heat can be pumped by a deep geothermal project like the one planned for TVAC. MaidEnergy has a number of goals, and is unique in that it provides community funded, community beneficial, environmentally sustainable, long term and stable investments that clearly benefit all the parties involved. Overall MaidEnergy’s working installations save over 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Although all of MaidEnergy’s projects to date are photovoltaic installations, MaidEnergy in 2019 installed 50kW of solar panels on the roof of TVAC, and this GSHP will entirely eliminate the use of gas boilers to heat the building. Eton and Windsor are lucky to have such an innovative and successful organisation tirelessly working on renewable energy projects for the benefit of the environment and local communities.” Cosmo, Year 12
“In a world of unsustainable energy MaidEnergy is genuinely trying to make a change and provide a solution to the climate crisis while benefiting the local community. MaidEnergy is truly trying to uproot the old, carbon-based energy economy and lay the groundworks for a more sustainable energy sector in the future. Their principles surrounding sustainability are really amazing but my absolute favourite aspect of them is the ethics behind their finances. While most energy companies are greedy and go for whichever options produce the most net profit, a quick glance at MaidEnergy’s finances show that there are some genuine ethics behind their business. They are a non-profit organisation and encourage all of their investors to invest with the goal of developing the energy sector and not just profit. I genuinely believe MaidEnergy sets and example for all businesses with their strong ethics and look forward to working with them.” Fola Year 10
“MaidEnergy gives a sustainable option for energy that helps to reduce the environmental impacts in the local area, providing great benefits to their members and community. The project also assists in combatting the inevitable climate crisis we face, meanwhile offering reduced energy bills for the TVAC. The people who are shareholders also get a vote in how MaidEnergy is managed, which emphasises their transparency. Their track record is very impressive as a non-profit organisation and they have demonstrated that their model works efficiently. Site occupiers have also benefited buying electricity from Maid Energy at a lower price than grid providers.” Merritt, Year 9
“This innovative approach to sustainable energy is exactly what we as a community need. The ground source heat pumps provide a clean way to heat buildings in a way which is free of all on-site carbon emissions. The sustainable ground source heat pumps lowers your fuel bills whilst being energy efficient. It does this through making use of the heat stored in the ground. In addition, it is constant and inexhaustible so there is no fluctuation in the production of its energy regardless of the season and it is a virtually silent form of renewable energy meanwhile creating a safer environment with no visual pollution.” Daryus, Year 12
“MaidEnergy is an energy society that was founded to tackle climate change and pioneer the development of renewable energy. Working in the community of Maidenhead (and the surrounding area), MaidEnergy's main area of focus has been on photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and their associated inverters. In 2019, MaidEnergy undertook a community share offer (which raised over £250,000) to install PV solar panels on schools, athletics facilities, and community buildings. The installations took place in early 2020 and saw a total of 169kW of PV solar panels installed across four facilities, including the Thames Valley Athletic Centre (TVAC). MaidEnergy installed 375kW of PV solar panels which resulted in significant savings of carbon and energy cost. They also plan to undertake a new project at the TVAC which aims to replace 8 existing ageing gas boilers and replace them with a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHPs). GSHPs can provide many benefits to a facility on the scale of the TVAC. Firstly, the running costs of heat pumps are incredibly low in comparison to those of direct electric heating system (as the only basic element of a simple GSHP that uses electric energy is the compressor). Secondly, GSHPs are extremely energy-efficient, with the energy output 3-4 times greater than the energy required to run them. Finally, GSHPs do not produce carbon emissions at all if a sustainable source of electricity is used to power them (such as the solar panels which were previously installed at the TVAC). As outlined above, the installation of a GSHP at the TVAC will improve the environment for the local community and reduce carbon emissions on the site. This makes the project a fantastic addition to the previous successes carried out by MaidEnergy to support the growth of renewable and locally generated energy throughout Maidenhead and the surrounding area.” James, Year 12
“The Thames Valley Athletics Centre (TVAC) is owned and run by the Datchet and Eton Leisure (DEL) and built on Eton College land. The building is heated by 8 ageing gas boilers, and MaidEnergy has proposed a fantastic Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) to replace them. From a community share offer, it has raised £196,000 to complete the installation of this project which has been supported in part by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). There are many benefits of GSHPs not least that for every kW of electricity needed to heat a building, over 4kW of heat can be pumped by a deep geothermal project like the one planned for TVAC. MaidEnergy has a number of goals, and is unique in that it provides community funded, community beneficial, environmentally sustainable, long term and stable investments that clearly benefit all the parties involved. Overall MaidEnergy’s working installations save over 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Although all of MaidEnergy’s projects to date are photovoltaic installations, MaidEnergy in 2019 installed 50kW of solar panels on the roof of TVAC, and this GSHP will entirely eliminate the use of gas boilers to heat the building. Eton and Windsor are lucky to have such an innovative and successful organisation tirelessly working on renewable energy projects for the benefit of the environment and local communities.” Cosmo, Year 12
“In a world of unsustainable energy MaidEnergy is genuinely trying to make a change and provide a solution to the climate crisis while benefiting the local community. MaidEnergy is truly trying to uproot the old, carbon-based energy economy and lay the groundworks for a more sustainable energy sector in the future. Their principles surrounding sustainability are really amazing but my absolute favourite aspect of them is the ethics behind their finances. While most energy companies are greedy and go for whichever options produce the most net profit, a quick glance at MaidEnergy’s finances show that there are some genuine ethics behind their business. They are a non-profit organisation and encourage all of their investors to invest with the goal of developing the energy sector and not just profit. I genuinely believe MaidEnergy sets and example for all businesses with their strong ethics and look forward to working with them.” Fola Year 10
“MaidEnergy gives a sustainable option for energy that helps to reduce the environmental impacts in the local area, providing great benefits to their members and community. The project also assists in combatting the inevitable climate crisis we face, meanwhile offering reduced energy bills for the TVAC. The people who are shareholders also get a vote in how MaidEnergy is managed, which emphasises their transparency. Their track record is very impressive as a non-profit organisation and they have demonstrated that their model works efficiently. Site occupiers have also benefited buying electricity from Maid Energy at a lower price than grid providers.” Merritt, Year 9
“This innovative approach to sustainable energy is exactly what we as a community need. The ground source heat pumps provide a clean way to heat buildings in a way which is free of all on-site carbon emissions. The sustainable ground source heat pumps lowers your fuel bills whilst being energy efficient. It does this through making use of the heat stored in the ground. In addition, it is constant and inexhaustible so there is no fluctuation in the production of its energy regardless of the season and it is a virtually silent form of renewable energy meanwhile creating a safer environment with no visual pollution.” Daryus, Year 12
“MaidEnergy is an energy society that was founded to tackle climate change and pioneer the development of renewable energy. Working in the community of Maidenhead (and the surrounding area), MaidEnergy's main area of focus has been on photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and their associated inverters. In 2019, MaidEnergy undertook a community share offer (which raised over £250,000) to install PV solar panels on schools, athletics facilities, and community buildings. The installations took place in early 2020 and saw a total of 169kW of PV solar panels installed across four facilities, including the Thames Valley Athletic Centre (TVAC). MaidEnergy installed 375kW of PV solar panels which resulted in significant savings of carbon and energy cost. They also plan to undertake a new project at the TVAC which aims to replace 8 existing ageing gas boilers and replace them with a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHPs). GSHPs can provide many benefits to a facility on the scale of the TVAC. Firstly, the running costs of heat pumps are incredibly low in comparison to those of direct electric heating system (as the only basic element of a simple GSHP that uses electric energy is the compressor). Secondly, GSHPs are extremely energy-efficient, with the energy output 3-4 times greater than the energy required to run them. Finally, GSHPs do not produce carbon emissions at all if a sustainable source of electricity is used to power them (such as the solar panels which were previously installed at the TVAC). As outlined above, the installation of a GSHP at the TVAC will improve the environment for the local community and reduce carbon emissions on the site. This makes the project a fantastic addition to the previous successes carried out by MaidEnergy to support the growth of renewable and locally generated energy throughout Maidenhead and the surrounding area.” James, Year 12
MaidEnergy
MaidEnergy is a Community Benefit Society, Reg 30926R.
