An Edinburgh-based renewable energy investment fund yesterday announced plans to to raise £30 million to buy more than 20 sites across mainland UK and Northern Ireland on which to build wind turbine farms.
Future Renewables Eco plc was established in 2015 with the aim of delivering a substantial source of income whilst encouraging an ethical and eco-friendly way of generating electricity. The firm is currently focused on medium-sized wind turbines but is also investigating opportunities in solar and biomass.
More than £14million has already been raised from previous funding rounds.
FRE will also target sites in the Republic Ireland that are set to benefit from a widely anticipated government backed tariff regime. In addition, it is looking to enter into power purchase agreements with local communities, selling electricity directly to public sector buildings and small to medium private, long established enterprises.
Gerry Woods, chief executive, FRE plc, said: “We have worked hard to establish relationships with landowners, developers, planners and energy companies to identify and capitalise early on potential opportunities.
“Our previous phases have progressed well and we believe we have identified more openings in the renewable energy market that allow us to further develop our business model.”
Funding phases 1 and 2 led to the construction of wind turbines at sites in Aberdeenshire, East Ayrshire and Cumbria. Both phases are now fully up and running and delivering clean, renewable energy to the national grid.
On site work recently began at Phase 3 across three locations in Northern Ireland and are expected to be operational by mid-December 2017. The phase’s other site in Cornwall was fully operational when it was purchased.
All FRE projects in phases 1 – 3 benefit from the UK Government incentive schemes (Feed-in Tariffs and Renewable Obligation Certificates) that underpin index-linked income to each site for 20 years.
Meanwhile, specialist wind turbine haulage businesses, West of Scotland Heavy Haulage Ltd, has gone into Administration
Founded in 1946 and based in Cumbernauld, West of Scotland Heavy Haulage operated one of the largest fleets of specialist heavy haulage trucks, trailers and low loaders in Scotland.
With contracts in the renewable, contracting, mining, civil engineering and construction sectors, its turnover was around £11 million.
2 Nov 2017
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