Thrive Renewables has acquired development rights for the 57MW Whitelaw Brae onshore wind power plant in the Scottish Borders.
Construction of the proposed 14-turbine site is expected to begin in 2025, and commissioning is set for the end of 2026. It is the second project to be funded by Fair Play Clean Energy, a joint venture between Thrive and a UK cashback site’s impact investing wing, TopCashback Sustainability, launched earlier this year. The venture has a combined £80 million in capital, which will be deployed over four years to directly finance renewable projects across the UK.
Thrive acquired the development rights from BayWar.e., which in April had set an agreement with Ripple Energy to make the development its fourth co-operative-owned project.
The page on Ripple’s website where interested customers can buy shares in Ripple Co-op 4 – to acquire the energy generated at the onshore wind plant – states new shares are not currently being sold while the company works with a potential co-investor to enable the coop to proceed with the project.
Current± has reached out to Ripple about the change in developer and asked whether the above is as a direct result.
Thrive says it has a record of delivering community and shared ownership at its own sites by funding community-owned energy projects. Following the acquisition of Whitelaw Brae, the developer says it aims to facilitate shared ownership at the site with Ripple’s coop.
Monika Paplaczyk, investment director at Thrive Renewables, said the company is “really pleased” with the acquisition which comes as it celebrates 30 years of funding and building clean energy projects in the UK.
Thrive’s battery expansion
Thrive was first established in 1994 as the Wind Fund by Triodos Bank UK, although the company has been independent of Triodos since 2016.
In 2022, the firm launched a crowdfunding offer with the aim of raising £5 million for the diversification and expansion of its portfolio. At the time, Thrive said it was hoping to increase its battery storage and baseload capacity and the collaborative funding available for community energy groups to build their own renewable energy projects.
It had just built its first battery storage asset, a 5MW/7.5MWh site near Milton Keynes that it acquired from Eclipse Power Generation in 2020. At the beginning of this year, it opened its biggest battery energy storage system (BESS) to date in the form of a 30MWh facility located on Feeder Road in Bristol.
The Bristol Energy Cooperative made a co-investment of 20% into the 1.5-hour duration, 20MW BESS, making it the first commercial battery owner to offer shared ownership to the local community.
Thrive has also invested £4 million into the Attix Community Interest Company for turbine construction in North Ayrshire. It will be the first 100% community-owned onshore wind turbine in Scotland to operate commercially without government price support mechanisms.
