I would like to tell you about Reading Hydro Community Benefit Society (CBS) who I am doing some work for.
Reading Hydro is a volunteer-led Society, which has an ambitious plan to build a hydro-electric scheme on the river Thames by Caversham Weir, and operate it as a community-owned asset. They have secured all the permissions that are needed to build the hydro scheme, and are now looking to raise £700,000 through a share offer to both individuals and organisations.
The plan is to install Archimedes Screw turbines beside Caversham Weir which should generate about 320MWh of renewable electricity each year, for decades to come. This is enough to supply about 90 average homes. It will also pay for improvements to the local environment around View Island, including a new fish pass to help fish and eels move up the river. Ideally, Reading Hydro would like to install and commission the scheme in 2020.
The hydropower scheme will be a community-owned asset, with any profits supporting other action to tackle climate change. As an investor, you have a say in the decisions that the Society makes.
You can apply for between £75 and £70,000 of shares. Pre-registration is open now – by pre-registering you can reserve a given number of shares. Or you can wait for the share offer to open on the 30th December. The share offer closes on the 14th February 2020.
If you would like to find out more and apply for shares, visit https://hydro.readinguk.org/shares/ Here you can find the Business Plan, Community Share Offer and a link for pre-registration. Or just send me a message!