Financing the Rotating Ring Wind Energy concept 800 metres wide machine.

On the subject of funding the first of these machines, Lovegreen bases his assumptions on known figures for the Vestas V90 Wind turbines planned for the Ladymoor wind farm as at May 2006 when it was stated that the average power generated over on typical year was expected to be 1.25 Megawatt an hour at a price of £70 a megawatt for and installed cost of £M1.26for each of 125 units.

To set up the normal wind turbines planning permission is sought for 25 to 28 years. For this new kind of machine a restricted term like that is an impediment. The planning permission needs to be open ended so that the life of the machinery is not predetermined and target figures in excess of sixty years can be aimed for. With everything in the station easily accessible from ground level the machines can be kept up to date indefinitely.

Because the concrete of the structure will be indoors and not subject to out door weather other than dampness or dryness the concrete should last as long as some of the Roman concrete.

Therefore whatever the cost the investment is spread over a very long term but there is no reason not to expect it to be recovered in the same time as for an ordinary wind farm, that is under four years. Thereafter the machine should show a proper profit.

The working capital for this kind of project clearly has to be raised as Venture capital at the stock exchanges and in the light of present day cost overruns it would be wise to think in terms of not less than £BM 1.0 (one thousand million pounds) to cover all R&D, all design costs, all legal and site acquisition charges, contingency figures for unforeseen factors and to have enough money to do things properly and leave something in the bank towards the next project.

If such a large figure is difficult to comprehend then consider that the Scottish Parliament building cost more than £M400 for a building planned to cot £M40.

Given a UK population of about 56 million the capital required is less than £20 a head. per machine. Ways must be found to make that kind of money an attractive purchase such as offering part of the selling price of the eventual electricity to each shareholder.

Then of course there is the hope of getting the pensions problem sorted and what better way than linking pensions to electricity for which the demand will never cease?

In practice of course, long before one comes to raising capital a handful of firms will need have got together to form a Joint Venture Project. Each of these firms will have built several projects over the last ten years so that One Billion pounds looks small by comparison. They will then ask the City to raise the money for them and within a few days the offering will be over subscribed and the risk spread far and wide.

If the funds were taken up by Unit Trust managers then little men with family savings will get a share as well as the big fellows. Yet again and thinking how people buy lottery tickets or in days gone by National Savings stamps there is scope for weekly and monthly deductions from earnings to buy shares. For example one £50 share a year for a £1 stamp a week deducted from pay, bought at the corner shop or by Direct debit.

Before all this there is an enormous amount of design work to be done. Other pages set out some but by no means all of the disciplines that should be involved. However there are clear indications that money can be made available for wind power development projects provided they are good prospects.