Ovesco wants £245,000 from local investors for solar at Raystede, Bevern Trust and Holmansbridge Farm. It has £34,900 from 19 people and until 31 October.

A Lewes community energy society is asking local people for £245,000 to put solar panels on an animal charity, a disability charity and a family farm. It has raised £34,900 from 19 investors so far, and the offer closes on 31 October.

Ovesco Ltd, which is registered at Lewes House on the High Street, opened its fourth share offer to the public last week. The Ethex platform handling the applications showed £34,900 raised, 14% of the target, on Wednesday 2 September.

This is an investment, not a donation, and the money is at risk. Ovesco says so itself, and so does the platform. We are reporting the offer, not recommending it.

Where the money would go

The three sites are all in the Lewes district, and two of the arrays are already generating.

  • Holmansbridge Farm Shop, near Barcombe, about three and a half miles north of Lewes. A 14.6 kWp array, already on the roof. Ovesco says it cost £18,355 and was paid for by Ovesco with no upfront cost to the farm.
  • Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare, near Ringmer, about two and a half miles north east of Lewes. A 90.5 kWp array, installed in July 2026. Ovesco calls it one of its biggest to date.
  • Bevern Trust, Barcombe. A 101.5 kWp array with 100 kWh of battery storage, and the only one of the three not yet built. Ovesco’s own offer document records it as subject to planning permission.

Together the three would generate around 205,000 kWh of electricity a year. The sites buy the power from Ovesco at a price capped below what they would otherwise pay, and anything they do not use is sold to the grid.

The first two arrays were built on short-term bridge loans. That is what makes this offer different from a normal fundraising appeal: most of the £245,000 repays borrowing that has already been spent, rather than buying new equipment. Ovesco is explicit about it, describing the offer as replacing those loans “with long-term community investment”.

We could not check the Bevern Trust planning application today. Lewes District Council’s planning portal has been returning a server error on every search since early August, and it was still doing so on Wednesday morning.

The numbers, and the three thresholds that matter

How far the Ovesco 2026 share offer has got A progress bar running from zero to the £350,000 maximum raise. £34,900 has been raised. The minimum raise, below which the offer does not proceed and money is returned, is £95,000. The target raise, which covers all three solar arrays, is £245,000. £34,900 in, and £95,000 is the number that decides it Ovesco Ltd 2026 share offer, as at 2 September 2026. Closes 31 October 2026. £34,900 raised, 19 investors £95,000 minimum raise below this, money is returned £245,000 target: funds all three arrays £350,000 maximum: adds a fourth array and EV charging Sources: Ovesco Ltd 2026 Share Offer document, section 4.1; Ethex, read 2 September 2026. Graphic by The Lewes Post.
Three numbers decide what happens: £95,000, £245,000 and £350,000.

The offer document sets three levels, and they do different things.

  • £95,000 is the minimum raise. If the offer does not reach it, it does not proceed and every investor gets their money back. Applications are held in a separate account until that point.
  • £245,000 is the target, and covers the capital cost of all three arrays.
  • £350,000 is the maximum, which would pay for a fourth array and electric vehicle charging at existing Ovesco sites. Hitting it would close the offer early.

The terms are the same for everyone. Shares cost £10 each. The minimum investment is £250 and the maximum is £35,000 for an individual or £100,000 for an organisation. Every member gets one vote at the annual meeting whatever they put in.

The return is slow and it is not guaranteed. Ovesco is targeting 5% a year, but no interest accrues at all in 2026 or 2027, so the first payment would come in the final quarter of 2028 for that calendar year. Capital repayment is planned to start at the end of 2030 and finish by 2051. Withdrawals can be requested from the end of 2030, subject to board approval and available funds.

What it means for you

If you are thinking of investing, the things to be clear about are these.

  • Your capital is at risk and you could get back less than you put in. These are withdrawable community shares. They are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and you cannot take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.
  • Your money is tied up for a long time. Ovesco asks investors to be prepared for 25 years, and says you should not invest more than you can afford not to see again.
  • The returns depend on the panels. The offer document lists the specific things that could reduce them: electricity prices falling, the arrays generating less than projected, the grid connection being unavailable for export, or the sites using less power than expected.
  • The deadline is 31 October 2026. The directors can extend it, or close it early if the maximum is reached.
  • Read the risk section before anything else. It is section 5 of the share offer document.

We are not offering financial advice and cannot tell you whether this is right for you.

If you are not investing, there is still something here worth knowing. Ovesco is currently developing a 17MW solar farm in the Lewes district, and it has helped develop a 5MW community solar farm that raised £1.2m in 2015. That is a much larger footprint than three roofs, and it will show up in the district’s planning system in due course. We cover planning decisions in the district as they are published.

Who Ovesco is

Ovesco Ltd is a community benefit society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under number 30875R, run by a volunteer board elected by its members, at Lewes House, 32 High Street, Lewes. It was set up in 2007 and won an Ashden Award in 2014. If it were ever wound up, its rules require its assets to pass to another organisation with similar aims rather than to private hands.

By its own account it has raised £490,000 from members since 2011, installed 230 kWp of community-owned solar, generated more than 4.2 million kWh and avoided an estimated 1,446 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

One date does not line up. The offer document gives the opening date as 17 August 2026, and says the offer runs for existing members only for two weeks before opening to the public. Ethex’s page gives the opening date as 5 August 2026. The closing date, 31 October, is the same on both.

Sources