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Going full circle: the story of mean moor
Community co-operatives successfully raise £5.7M to repay Thrive’s Community Energy Funding Bridge.
Posted: 26 Jun 2020
Gevens wind farm
The Gevens wind farm consists of three 2.3MW turbines just under 100 metres tall. In an exciting break from our traditional approach, Thrive has invested in this project in the form of a mezzanine loan.
Project location
The Gevens project is located in Fife, Scotland and is 5km from Kirkcaldy, close to the open water of Loch Camilla and Loch Gelly.
Project summary
The Gevens project became operational and started generating renewable electricity in September 2016. In a break from our traditional approach, Thrive invested in this project in the form of a mezzanine loan. With changes to the political support for certain renewable technologies during 2016 – through planning and subsidies – this was an exciting step for us. Exploring diverse approaches whilst still ensuring we satisfied our investment criteria and achieved the impact we value.
Our loan allowed the original developer to complete the construction, see their vision of a new renewable energy project through to fruition and to maintain their long term ownership. For Thrive, and our investors, the project added new, clean generating capacity to the grid, may not have been possible without our involvement and now provides a predictable income from interest payable on the loan.
The wind farm itself consists of three turbines with a site capacity of 6.9MW and annual forecast output of 18.4GWh, enough to power the equivalent electricity demand of 4,600 UK homes.
Key stats
| Turbines | Enercon E48 |
|---|---|
| Number of turbines | 3 |
| Maximum tip height | 79 metres |
| Site capacity | 6.9 MW |
| Operational since | September 2016 |
| Annual forecast output | 18.4 GWh |
| UK homes equivalent | 4,606 |
