4 Pines Community Solar
We are no longer accepting expressions of interest.
Congratulations to the lucky investors who made the draw. We’ll be in touch soon with instructions for becoming a member and investor in the Pingala Co-operative.

Hello to all 4 Pines Community!
Welcome to Pingala’s investment and membership information page for the 4 Pines community solar project, created especially for you! Also get regular updates on our Facebook event.
We’ve crafted the information on this page so that you have everything you need to determine if investing in Pingala is for you, or not. Whatever your decision, we’d like you to know that we’re excited that Pingala will be forming a long-lasting and positive relationship with 4 Pines and we not only look forward to supplying your brewery with cheap and clean solar power, but also we’re stoked that we’ll be joining each other’s broader community.
We think we make a perfect match, Pingala + 4 Pines. We both like to do things differently. At Pingala we want to do energy differently because we believe the old way of making energy is fundamentally broken and unfair.
We’re also so proud to be bringing this project to our members as part of a collaboration with two other awesome organisations, ClearSky Solar Investments and Smart Commercial Solar. These Northern Beaches Locals have been doing amazing work in getting more solar power out there on the roofs of businesses, supported by local community investors. Partnering with ClearSky and Smart Commercial brings the best of both worlds – their solid track-record and solar management experience with Pingala’s Co-operative approach to allow a much larger number of community investors to participate in the project.
Read on – we hope you find this information easy to understand but, if you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us to discuss things further.
The Basics
The project
4 Pines Brewing Company will be brewing beer powered by the sun AND the community by the time summer rolls around. Leading solar engineers, Smart Commercial Solar, will be installing a 100 kW solar system to supply renewable electricity to their brewery, pack line, and office spaces in Brookvale, NSW. The system is set to be generating clean energy by November 12th this year. This is the first step towards 4 Pines being run on 100% renewable electricity by 2025.
But to throw convention out the window and bring the community along for the ride, the project will be 100% funded by a community of investors. In a first ever collaboration, trailblazing community solar organizations, Pingala and ClearSky Solar Investments are coming together to engage the community in this sustainable investment option. 4 Pines employees, friends and Northern Beaches locals are invited to participate and make-up an inclusive investor portfolio.
Community funded
The installation is being funded by the 4 Pines Brewing Company’s local community including 4 Pines employees, friends and Northern Beaches locals. The not-for-profit community energy group ClearSky Solar Investments will set up a Fixed Unit Trust through which community members can invest. 4 Pines will pay for the solar electricity generated for ten years post installation and this revenue stream will repay the community investors with an attractive rate of return.
However, a ClearSky Trust is legally restricted to just 20 investors who would have needed to invest almost $6,000 each to raise the $116,000 cost of the installation. But this hurdle was overcome when Pingala Co-operative stepped in and agreed to become the principal investor in the ClearSky trust, taking on responsibility for raising 75% of the capital. Pingala will do this by offering $250 shares, with a maximum of 4 shares per person. So now hundreds of members of the 4 Pines community can be part of this great 4 Pines environmental initiative along with 19 individuals who can invest larger sums directly in the ClearSky trust.
A set of legal agreements between ClearSky and Smart Commercial solar will ensure that solar generation revenue gets distributed to unit holders in the ClearSky Trust and Pingala will use its share to pay a dividend to the Pingala shareholders.
Pingala investors
The Pingala Co-operative will be one of the 20 investors in the ClearSky Trust, adding this investment to its portfolio of investments, thereby achieving its goal of supporting local businesses by helping them finance their clean energy upgrades.
Community members who invest in the Pingala Co-operative will become members as well as shareholders in the Co-op. This means they become co-owners of the Pingala Co-operative.
The Pingala Co-operative seeks to deliver dividend payments to its members of between 5% and 8% per annum. The Board of Directors of the Co-operative have discretion to determine the dividend to be paid each year and they have fiduciary responsibility for managing the Co-operative for the benefit of member-shareholders.
Public offer
All potential investors are invited to submit expressions of interest to buy between 1 and 4 packets of shares at $250 per packet.
The community is invited to an event at the 4 Pines Truck Bar in Brookvale (the site where the solar system will be installed) on Saturday October 27th at 3pm. Here’s the Facebook event, share with your friends and family!
We’re pretty confident that there will be way more people wanting to invest than we’ll have shares on offer. Did we mention we like to do things differently? Well, what we plan to do is to draw the public expressions of interest out of a (beer) barrel until we’ve raised enough money to meet our total fundraising goal. It’ll work a lot like a chook raffle – except instead of winning a tray of meat, the lucky prize is the right to become an investor in the project. It should be a lot of fun for everyone there on the day.
NOTE: This process is for the public investors only.
What next?
If you think you might want to invest, here’s how you can get involved:
- Read the FAQ’s below and download and read the Pingala Rules and Disclosure Statement.
- Complete & submit your Expression of Interest (EOI). This EOI acts as your RSVP to our Investor Event.
- Your EOI will go in the draw for a chance to invest.
- Join us at the 4 Pines Truckbar on Saturday October 27th at 3pm to find out more. Joined the Facebook event?
- You can apply for up to four $250 share packages.
- A raffle will determine who the lucky investors are!
- Still have questions? Contact our Solar investment team at info@pingala.com.au
Remember, you need to determine your own ability to make this investment and you need to decide if the risks of this investment match your profile and personal circumstances. We cannot advise you on your financial affairs and you should consult a professional financial advisor before you make any major investment decisions.
Don’t forget you’ve only got until 26 October to complete the form at the bottom of the page!
FAQs
Who is Pingala?
Who is 4 Pines?
It presented the wider family an opportunity to do something together; to build a small brewpub, introduce others to an exceptional beer and brewpub experience they had never seen before, build a little community where all were welcome and make some friends along the way.
It was from these new friends at the brewpub that we learnt the heart and soul of the working and business world had long since been corrupted. The fun had died, daring to step outside of the norm was frowned upon and dollars had become the focus – at the expense of almost everything else.
4 Pines, on the other hand, was built on throwing convention out the window, using alternative methods to measure success and having fun while we did it. We learnt even the smallest of businesses can change the game and for us, it was about leading in and being known for employee culture, customer experience, innovation, environmental and social responsibility and exceptional beer.
People seemed to like that and the little community grew and grew.
This innocent conversation that evolved into a brewpub became the foundation of a lifelong journey with family, friends and the community to restore the fun in people’s lives and forever challenge what the world imagines business should be.
From here, we will keep on doing what we know best – to create, share & perpetuate Australia’s leading locally famous & globally celebrated beer company.
What is a Co-operative?
What is the investment offer?
How many shares can I buy?
Can I purchase more than $1,000 of shares? Can I purchase less than $250 of shares?
How do I invest?
- You will need to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to invest before October 26th to reserve up to 4 share packets. You can do this by completing the EOI form at the bottom of the page. Make sure you tell us how many share packages you would like to reserve; either 1, 2, 3 or 4 share packets (see above “How many shares can I buy?”).
- Once the registration for EOI has closed the selection process will commence, this will happen at the Pingala & 4 Pines Investor Event at the truck bar on the 27th.
- All potential shareholders who were successfully allocated shares will receive an application for becoming a member of the Pingala Co-operative.
- You will need to transfer your money to the Pingala Co-operative via electronic fund transfer (EFT). *IMPORTANT: You will only have a very limited window in which to transfer funds to Pingala, missing the deadline will mean missing out on the opportunity to invest.
- Pingala will then send you a receipt for your investment and a shareholding statement, along with an information pack explaining how dividends will be paid to you, and other important facts.
What is the rate of return on my investment? When are dividends paid and how often?
What happens after the 10 year project life is over?
What if I need to access my capital? Can I sell my shares? How soon can I sell them?
- Finding another member to buy your shares. This is the preferred method of selling your shares. You can either find a buyer yourself or you can use the Pingala Shares for Sale register. People who are interested in purchasing shares can view the register and request Pingala to put them in touch with the prospective seller.
- Pingala repurchase of shares. This is recommended for situations where a buyer cannot be found and there are urgent reasons for selling shares. You can apply to the Co-operative to repurchase your shares and in most circumstances this will be possible. The Co-operative is not obliged to repurchase shares if it will be detrimental to the Co-operative.
Can I complete a joint application?
How do I pay for the shares?
Who will own and manage the project once it has been installed. Will I be able to contact someone if I have a question about my shares?
Will the dividends be franked?
Essential documents
Rules – our constitution
Co-operatives have a constitution just like companies do, but they’re called Rules. The Rules set out the ways in which the Co-operative operates, the obligations of members, the purpose of the organisation and the way in which meetings are run and so forth.
Disclosure Statement – a bit like a prospectus
Pingala Co-operative is a for-profit entity. Technically this is what is known as a distributing co-operative. That’s just a fancy way of saying we distribute surplus/profit to our shareholders. So, we’re a for-profit Co-op.
Just like a company needing to issue a prospectus if they make a public offer to investors, our Co-operative must always have an up-to-date Disclosure Statement that outlines the financial involvement and liability of member-investors as well as the overall prospects of the organisation into the future.
This is your main document to determine what sort of investment you’ll be making if you were to become a member and buy shares. The document includes a section on risk, which you should pay particular attention to (although all parts of the document need your attention, so don’t just read the risk section!)
You can find the Rules and Disclosure Statement on our Co-op Members page.
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