A record year of green infrastructure investment

UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) has today published its Annual Report for the financial year ended 31 March 2016. This is GIB’s fourth year-end results since it began operating in October 2012.

The Report provides details of how, in 2015/16, GIB committed more of its own capital, mobilised more capital from other private sector investors and supported more projects than in any other year to date.

GIB has now committed to invest £2.6bn in 79 UK green infrastructure projects, worth a total of £10.6bn.

Results for the year include:

Capital committed: GIB committed £770m to transactions during the year, taking the total capital committed to £2.6bn.

Capital mobilised: An additional £2.9bn of other private sector capital was committed during the year to be invested alongside GIB during the year, totalling new financial commitments of £3.7bn for UK green infrastructure projects in 2015/16.

Projects supported: 30 green energy infrastructure projects were supported during the year, an increase of eight on the previous year.

Investments ranged from £306m in the first offshore wind farm to be constructed off the south coast of England, to £47m in Northern Ireland’s biggest energy from waste facility, to £1.9m in the installation of sewage heat pumps in sites across Scotland.

Green impact: The growth in GIB’s portfolio means that, once built, GIB’s investments are set to generate enough renewable electricity to meet all the domestic electricity demand in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Increased profitability: Profit before tax strengthened significantly to £9.9m, following a modest profit for 2014/15.  The projected portfolio return increased to 10% pa.