LONDON — Raising €1.3 million in just thirteen hours, 1700 Dutch households that came together to buy shares in a wind turbine have set a new world record for crowdfunding.
All 6,648 shares in the electricity from the Vestas V80 2-MW wind turbine were sold, at a share price of €200. Each household bought single shares or blocks of shares, with each share corresponding to an output of around 500 kWh/share per year.
The purchase was organised by Windcentrale, a company that facilitates cooperative wind turbine purchases. Windcentrale says it has enabled more than 6,900 Dutch citizens to buy shares in wind turbines, and according to co-founder Harm Reitsma there is a growing list of several thousand people who have expressed interest in future purchase options.