
A new gas and renewable energy development company has been created from London-based Velocita Energy Developments and Greenock-based 2020 Renewables, which starts off with an existing portfolio more than 750MW fully-consented onshore wind and energy storage schemes.
Their current portfolio comprises 150 MW of consented and 225MW of advanced development onshore wind and a fully-consented 400MW pumped storage scheme being developed in conjunction with joint venture partner Buccleuch.
Forsa Energy – which is backed by global energy and power-focussed private equity firm Riverston – now aims to develop, build and operate gas, renewable and energy storage projects across the EU and UK.
Alan Baker, Chief Executive, explained: “The recent auction of offshore wind contracts – where costs have more than halved – shows that renewable energy projects will continue to get cheaper as long as there is a market for their power.
“At the same time, storage technologies – including established solutions such as pumped storage – offer new possibilities for how energy can be generated and managed, whilst small-scale decentralised gas generation can deliver flexibility and fast response.
“This is just what future markets will need. Old coal-fired stations are closing down, we’ve got increasingly cheap but intermittent renewables, plus an electric vehicle revolution on the horizon – so we’ll see lots of peaks and troughs in energy supply and demand.
“Every country in Europe will need an energy mix that is low carbon and very responsive.
“The great news is that all of these technologies can be delivered at zero or very low subsidy.
“And – if you put them in them in the right combination – they can deliver very stable low carbon energy far cheaper, and just reliably as other energy sources.”
2 Oct 2017