Onshore renewables
Announcements prior to September 2017, including this announcement, occurred under previous ownership.
10 August 2015
A commitment of £10m today sees Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) join the UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) and Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) as investors in UK community-scale renewable energy projects through Albion Community Power plc (ACP).
ACP builds, controls and operates community-scale renewable projects across the UK. It is one of the largest single sources of equity funding available for projects in the sector.
GIB and SPF committed £50m and £10m respectively to ACP earlier this year. GMPF’s investment amounts to a quarter of the further capital ACP aims to raise from additional co-investors as it builds a £100m pot of funding for small-scale projects.
ACP marked the occasion by announcing details of its latest project, a 499 kW hydropower scheme located on the River Arkaig in Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands.
The £3.3m scheme, located on the Achnacarry estate, will generate approximately 2.3 GWh of renewable electricity per year. This is equivalent to the electricity consumption of around 550 homes. It will be constructed in conjunction with Green Highland Renewables and completion is expected in February 2016.
Water will be diverted from the river down a 6 metre drop using a weir. This will turn two 250 kW Archimedes’ screws to generate power, before returning to the river downstream.
This latest investment typifies ACP’s objective of creating a portfolio of small, decentralised renewable generation projects closer to the sources of demand. The River Arkaig project will be directly connected to distribution networks and, by its local nature, will help contribute to a reduction in transmission and distribution losses in addition to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Volker Beckers
Chair of Albion Community Power
Councillor Kieran Quinn
Chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund
Shaun Kingsbury
Chief Executive of the UK Green Investment Bank
Councillor Paul Rooney
Chair of Strathclyde Pension Fund
ACP has agreed to sell 50% per cent of its electricity to directly local users through private wire arrangements, but is engaging with industry to investigate the option of selling more of the generated power straight to end customers.
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About Albion Community Power
ACP builds, owns and operates renewable energy plants across the UK. ACP receives executive support, advisory and administration services from Albion Ventures, which has a strong track record in renewable energy projects.
To date, Albion has invested or committed or committed £60m to renewable energy projects and, of this, £35m is now producing energy. www.albioncommunitypower.co.uk
About Greater Manchester Pension Fund
About Strathclyde Pension Fund
The £14bn Strathclyde Pension Fund is one of the UK’s largest, providing services to around 200,000 people across the public, private and third sectors. It is part of the Scottish Local Government Pension Scheme and is administered by Glasgow City Council. www.spfo.org.uk
About Green Highland Renewables
Green Highland Renewables specialises in the development of small-scale hydro-electric schemes. Since 2007, GHR has worked on a wide range of run-of-river schemes at every phase of the development process, from initial concept through to consent, construction and operation, as well as providing remedial works and scheme optimisation. www.greenhighland.co.uk