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.
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