Sorry for the tardy time it took for me to reply.
6% depends on your standpoint. Currently a lot better than ISA's and safer then most things as it is government backed - at least the feed in part. You could also look at it from a "I want want to feel good and do my bit for the environment" point of view. Not all people can have Solar panels, wind turbines and drive electric cars, but want to do something.
No the concept was not that your money would be tied in, rather you could trade with other members of the group 'your' panels.
I still see it as a long term as it may take a while to get your money out.
Currently Chesterfield is a way behind other parts of the country and that has a lot to do with the traditional industries around here. Coal mining. Those days are gone at least for the next few decades. The future is in renewables (at least until they run out
sorry bad joke). There is no reason why Chesterfield cannot set an example of how far things can be switched.
The other thing Chesterfield is behind on, and this affects tourism rather then just being for locals is Electric car charging points. There are now a large enough volume of Electric cars for it to worth installing charge points around the town. Currently people by-pass Chesterfield as there are available charge points on the Motorway, Sheffield and Derby. this is silly when Chesterfield has two main dealers of electric cars and one of them is 1 of only 134 in the UK. We also have one of the UK's leading suppliers of charge points and cables. Looking at any charge map will show a big hole around Chesterfield.
All these charge points could be powered by these Solar and wind farms. Clean energy and transport.
Note JUST to process/refine 1 gallon of petrol (not transport) takes 4.5KH of electricity or 20 Electric car miles.