Energy

London hydro scheme seeks immediate investment

London-based community energy scheme Teddington & Ham Hydro (T&HH) is offering a chance to invest in a new hydropower project before tax relief is removed next week.

As world leaders prepare for the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris next month, the volunteer-led company is seeking community investment of £3.7 million for its 492 kilowatt hydropower plant on the River Thames.

The scheme says it is ‘desperate’ for investment in the next week, as the government announced on 28 October that tax relief from investment in community energy schemes under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) would end on 30 November. The T&HH team is therefore seeking to raise as much capital as possible by the end of the month.

With a minimum investment of £250 and a maximum of £100,000, shares in the scheme are being offered at a predicted internal rate of return of 8.3 per cent, but the organisation says that investors must buy their shares by 26 November.

T&HH says that the facility would create enough power to provide the equivalent of 500-600 homes with clean energy, reducing carbon emissions by up to 1,000 tonnes each year that the scheme is in operation. Carbon payback, the group predicts, would occur in nine months, based on a lifecycle analysis carried out by the National Physical Laboratory.

The T&HH project is one of 25 projects across the UK that is rushing to beat the tax relief deadline. Dubbed ‘The Clean Energy Dash’, the projects are collectively trying to raise investment of over £10 million in a little over a week.

T&HH, run by local volunteers and supported by local residents, is currently battling against the Shell-owned Lensbury Club, a riverside hotel and spa, to construct the  hydropower scheme.

According to T&HH, the club has fought the scheme, and is seeking to overturn planning approval with a judicial review application. The project group says, however, that by purchasing the electricity produced, the club could decarbonise its operations.

Stephen Jarvis, Managing Director, T&HH, said: “Many local communities throughout the UK have grasped the opportunity to be more resilient and autonomous by developing community renewable energy. As well as the benefits of cheaper, greener energy controlled by the local community, these schemes have shown to also to encourage greater community cohesion through engagement in a common goal as well as kick-starting a wider discussion on saving energy through energy efficiency.  We can now grasp at the benefits of our own community renewable scheme in the form of Teddington & Ham Hydro, a hydropower project at Teddington Weir.”

Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park, added: “T&HH is a hugely exciting local project, but it is also important nationally. Small-scale, decentralised clean energy is without a doubt a big part of the future, and I believe that, once completed, the project will be among the largest community-run river hydro scheme in Europe, generating enough power for over 500 homes and saving around 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

“In addition to promoting community cohesion, the Teddington & Ham Hydro team have created a pioneering scheme which will generate local employment and provide environmental benefits and community gain. I’m proud that my community is at the cutting edge.”

Regarding community energy, Boris Johnson said: “The proposals [to remove EIS tax reliefs for community energy] may endanger the expansion of the sector given the investment required for the upfront capital costs… there is a danger of unintended consequences.”

More information about the Clean Energy Dash and the projects looking for investment is available on the campaign website