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Following an incredibly successful and productive year, YnNi Teg are proud to announce that we have made the shortlist of nominations for the Community Renewable Awards, which will be hosted on the 19th of October in Bristol.

YnNi Teg will be in with a chance of winning the coveted Community Renewable Energy project Award, which celebrates the most outstanding renewable electricity generation project undertaken by a community group.

This year there is some tough competition, such as our co-nominee, The Schools’ Energy Cooperative Ltd, who install community funded solar panel systems on schools free of charge as well as paying all their to its member schools.

It’s an honour to be considered alongside the School’s energy Cooperative in a field where a number of fantastic Welsh projects (Gower Power, Awel Aman Tawe) have been winners in the past!

Due to this wonderful news, the team here at YnNi Teg have decided to extend the closing date for the share offer to the end of this month; October 31st.
By investing (and becoming a member!), you will be helping us to achieve our mission of developing a clean energy future, mitigating climate change, building stronger, more resilient communities in Wales, and spreading the benefit of ownership across society rather than in the hands of the few.

As well as all these wonderful benefits, you will also directly benefit from a projected 5% return on your investment over a twenty-year time frame!
So don’t delay, follow this link to read more about how to invest for as little as £100!

Now we have completed a full year of operation we can start to check our performance against our predictions.

According to data published by the government here, wind speeds across the UK were about 5% below the average across the last 10 years (it has been a very calm summer as you can see from the graph below)

Our output from 1st Sept 2017 to 31st August 2018 was 1,914,334 kWh, which is about 12% below our projected output in an average year.

Energy output from a wind turbine is not proportional to wind speed – halving the wind speed reduces the energy in the wind to one eighth of the amount. We can see the effect of a reduced wind speed on energy yield from the turbine using the computer model on the EWT website here. This indicates that a 5% lower wind speed results in output falling by about 11%, which very nearly matches our measured output.

All this suggests our original projections for the long term performance of the turbine should be very close.

The graph below shows our output month by month from commissioning to now, and shows the effect of the very calm summer months.

 

The team here at YnNi Teg thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to host a photography competition in order to capture the essence of community energy and the renewables sector across Wales. There was an incredibly high standard of photos, but after some consideration we believe the following images came to the fore!

The first image, of a Ynni Ogwen volunteer cleaning the hydro’s input was the recipient of the main prize, as the photo perfectly incapsulates the hard work and devotion required (mostly from volunteers) to keep community renewable projects afloat!

Winner of Community Energy in Wales Photo: Nick Pipe, Bethesda North Wales; Ynni Ogwen Volunteer cleaning the input.

Winner of Renewables and Nature: Milo Jones, Cardiff; Awel Aman Tawe Turbines.

 

 

Meidrim residents, Robert Minhinnick (red jacket), Robert Procter and Mali (left of plaque). Helen Williams (right of plaque) and guests standing in front of “Geraint Gwyllt”. Photograph credit to Roy Watkins https://www.roywatkinsphoto.com/

On Friday 21st September, Meidrim witnessed an unusual “naming ceremony”.

Having bussed attendees to the turbine, Robert Proctor, from Community Energy Wales and YnNi Teg expressed gratitude to all for attending the event and introduced Helen Williams (www.treasuredceremonies.co.uk) who then officiated. In this unique ceremony, poems were read by Ms. Williams and award – winning author and environmental campaigner Robert Minhinnick. Wales’s place in the production of energy and the significance of wheels in the name of the turbine were among topics featured in the short address.

The name plaque was unveiled by six-year old Mali, who won the naming competition with the name “Geraint Gwyllt”, or “Wild Geraint” after Welsh cycling champion Geraint Thomas.

Robert Proctor said ‘This is what a community energy is all about, members and local people are able to come and enjoy and connect with their local turbine. It was fantastic that so many people put themselves forward to taking part in the ceremony and made it a really special day for YnNi Teg.’

There is still the opportunity for people to invest in the turbine and become members of the co-operative but they only have until Friday the 28th of September!
By investing in the scheme, you will be helping us to achieve our mission of developing a clean energy future, mitigating climate change, building stronger, more resilient communities in Wales, and spreading the benefit of ownership across society rather than in the hands of the few.

You can apply for anything between £100 and £100,000 in shares. Anyone aged 16 or over can apply for shares, and as a shareholder you automatically become a member of our society and can take part in member meetings and help to make decisions about what the Society should be doing. You will also be able to take advantage of the opportunity to earn returns of around 5% and own a little piece of ‘Geraint Gwyllt’!