Green Investment Bank drives £1bn pledge for renewables
GIB has announced plans to partner with the Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) as well as liaise with other organisations to drive part of a £1bn fund for renewable energy projects
The Green Investment Bank (GIB) has partnered with Infinite Renewables based in Wales and Green Highland Renewables based in Scotland on a “substantial project pipeline” to drive their £1bn pledge to construct renewable energy projects.
GIB will provide £50m of funding with Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) providing around £10m and the two organisations plan to assemble the investments through Albion Community Power plc (ACP), a specialist in the development and operation of community scale renewables projects.
The cash is expected to provide equity funding of between £1m and £10m to a wide range of run-of-river hydro projects, onshore wind turbines as well as landfill gas confinement impounds and anaerobic digestion.
Vince Cable, the British Liberal Democratic Business Secretary will visit the GIB’s headquarters in Edinburgh to announce the new funding initiative that pursue a similar funding commitment for energy efficiency programmes, waste-to-energy facilities and offshore wind projects.
Cable said: “Renewable energy is the future, and we must continue to use all of the new and established technologies at our disposal to power our homes and businesses in a way that doesn't damage the environment”.
Cable is also expected to announce that Green Highland Renewables (GHR) will be the first to benefit from the new funding. Approximately 10 miles north of Loch Lomond a £8.5m 2Mw run-of-river hydro-power project is to be constructed on the River Allt Coire Chaorach near Crianlarich.
According to Cable hydro power plays a key role as the project will produce enough power for nearly 2,000 homes as well as provide high-skilled job opportunities for the rural communities in Scotland.
Chair of UK Green Investment Bank, Lord Smith of Kelvin, said: “The UK is in the process of transforming how it generates its power. In future we will see less reliance on a small number of large power stations and more focus on a network of smaller, locally generated, renewable sources of power. Hydro is one example of how we can do this and we are delighted to play our part in helping this market grow, bringing investment to rural communities along the way”.
Former boss of RWE npower and Chair of ACP, Volker Beckers said: "It is a clear sign that institutional demand for community-scale renewable energy is growing and ACP is well placed to benefit from this trend. Having institutional investors will help ACP build many more renewable energy plants in 2015”.
