Energise Barnsley is offering individuals and organisations the opportunity to become a member and bondholder and invest in the society’s solar assets through a community bond offer.

Energise Barnsley is offering individuals and organisations the opportunity to become a member and bondholder and invest in the society’s solar assets through a community bond offer.

This second bond offer [the first was issued in 2016] is seeking to refinance operational solar PV assets. All the solar assets will be installed and maintained by British Gas Solar, the principal contractor to Energise Barnsley. All the solar assets are located on Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council-owned properties, providing a credit-worthy long-term landlord.

The Series II bond offers a projected 4% per annum for a 5-year term.

The bond offer document and route to invest is on the Ethex platform, found here https://www.ethex.org.uk/invest/energise-barnsley .

The project is the largest roof top solar joint local authority and community energy project in the UK. The project has some unique strengths due to its strong partners and careful design:

• Bond capital will only be deployed on commissioned, operational solar PV assets, which have passed technical performance tests
• The solar assets have performance warranties backed by British Gas Solar and its parent company GB Gas Holdings Ltd. All operation and maintenance will be performed by British Gas Solar, ensuring the highest quality equipment with robust generation and energy forecasts
• The solar irradiance levels for the Barnsley region have been independently measured by a leading solar technical adviser, OST Energy, ensuring the energy forecasts are reliable
• In addition to Feed in Tariff income, larger non-domestic sites have a power purchase agreement with Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council for a 20-year period, providing long term, high credit quality, RPI linked income

The offer is open until November 15th – the Monday after COP26 closes.