We are still looking at an early 2024 switch on date - with the first turbine commissioned in January. Whilst this is not confirmed, all parties involved in your build remain committed to working to this timeline. Your turbines should arrive on site over the next 2 months.
There have been inflationary pressures on costs throughout the project. When we closed the co-op share offer back in May 2022 we explained to you we would be securing a finance facility to fund part of the construction. This is with Virgin Money. Originally we expected this agreement would need to cover approximately £9.7M of construction costs (plus any wrapped up interest). The total facility agreed for £14M takes into account the additional construction costs, and the rolled-up interest as well as a VAT facility that's available during construction.
The increase in the size of the debt facility means that although construction costs have increased slightly (approximately 8.5%), no extra funding is required from members.
Due to uncertainty around energisation timings, the Kirk Hill co-operative board has agreed the PPA price should be fixed from 1st April. This will be when your savings rate for the first year will apply.
Don't worry, Kirk Hill will still be paid for all generation which occurs ahead of 1st April. The electricity will be bought at the half hourly "system price". You will still be able to track your generation from your dashboard (although more likely on a monthly basis).
We will set the wind farm's operating costs for the year starting 1st April, taking into account all revenues received for any generation before that date. We would therefore expect your monthly savings in the first year from April to be slightly higher, resulting from any early revenue received. We will set out more details when we have more clarity over the numbers in the spring.