Add ‘wind’, ‘solar’ or ‘renewable’ to a financial asset and you’ll soon have a line of suckers between here and the horizon.
The canny investor knows that, if it’s too good to be true, it is. However, that doesn’t curb the enthusiasm of those eager to take your money and run.
Not that the habit of fleecing investors is exclusive to the wind and solar industries, heaven forbid. However, as Paul Homewood outlines below, these boys are very good at it; provided that the subsidies keep flowing.
Solar Subsidy Farming
Not a Lot of People Know That
Paul Homewood
9 September 2021
There’s an outfit called Next Energy Solar Fund, who are after your money to invest in solar projects:
https://www.nextenergysolarfund.com/solar-asset-portfolio/
Next Energy don’t directly own the solar farms, it is merely the holding company for a number of shell companies who do own them. This is advantageous to them, as they can simply let any one of the shell companies go bankrupt if it runs into trouble, without the holding company taking much of a hit.
And because most of the money invested belongs to investors in the fund, Next Energy have little to lose anyway. Instead they merely rake off the profits and service charges.
Curiously the assets stated above seem to exceed the number of solar farms listed on their website, as Tomo discovered, but there may be a good reason for this.
But a look at their Annual Accounts makes interesting reading.
Most of their capacity, 86%, is subsidised via ROCs and FITs, (Renewable Obligations and Feed in Tariffs):
Weighting the ROCs according to this chart gives an average of 1.4 ROC/MWh. As ROCs were worth £50.05 last year, this amounts to a subsidy of £70.26/MWh. Adding in FITs at a conservative value of £50/MWh, the total subsidy farmed by these assets amounted to around £43 million last year, on top of the revenue from electricity sales.
According to their Accounts, the income from the solar assets was only £38.9 million, meaning that they would have made a loss without the subsidy.
They make a play about new investment in “subsidy free” solar, but the amount is tiny, and can still earn subsidies through the sale of REGOs.
Nationally solar capacity in the y/e March 2021 has only increased by 1.2%, from 13305 to 13477 MW, suggesting that there is still little investor interest.
Not a Lot of People Know That
About stopthesethings
STOP THESE THINGS 
Renewables can be great for the investor, as long as society doesn’t come to its senses and cut the subsidies….
But it takes a certain kind of delusional, or complete lack of moral fiber (stupid or corrupt) to want to profit from them.
They call solar modules as photovoltaic, pretend high science,turn products in concept, just like call masks as absorption. So you can understand why so many experts in UNSW,although they don’t know anything about solar and electricity.
Has the irrepressible eco warrior from Kooyong, Yoda Yates, disappeared into a cauldron of global warming gases?
His Facebook page is gone!
His Twitter account has vanished!
Can’t understand why?
I can now reveal Yoda Yates has in fact now gone undercover and will replace Daniel Craig as the new James Bond.
The new woke Bond will roam the streets of Kooyong in his biofuel driven Aston Martin, determined to keep global warming under .007 degrees.
The latest in the sequel is to be called “Climate 200” where Yoda is instructed by M to destroy arch nemesis Josh Frydenberg. A man of unknown origins but who poses an existential threat to mankind by his policies leading the planet Earth into a fiery inferno.
M will be played by the renewable energy messiah, a reclusive, disassociated individual who controls MI5 from his bedroom through his daily tweets.
To destroy Frydenberg, Yoda and M must first find a female operative to stand as an independent member for Kooyong.
The question remains, who will be that female operative and will she be known as Pussy Galore?
P.S. In late news “Peanut” the ever-faithful pooch of Yoda, who will also get a cameo role in the film has suggested the female operative be known as “Honey Rider” a name more in keeping with the motives of rent seekers.
Onya Peanut!
Goat Gold!!
Love your work SOAG.Pleased to see you’re back on the Job.