Ecotricity has announced a £70 million refinancing deal for its green energy portfolio from leading British institutional investor Aviva Investors.
The innovative refinancing deal included 60MW of operational wind and solar parks across 19 sites, including Ecotricity’s earliest project dating back to 1996.
Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said the £70 million deal would not only help the green energy firm accelerate its development pipeline of new renewable energy projects across Britain, but also represented an evolution in Ecotricity’s business model.
“We are pleased to be working with Aviva Investors, a leading British institutional investor, on this innovative financing deal,” said Vince.
“Harnessing our customers bills and turning them into windmills got Ecotricity to where it is today – that ‘bills into mills’ model has worked well for us over the last 20 years.
“This investment from Aviva is an evolution of that Ecotricity model – freeing up value from our own windmills – in effect we’re turning ‘mills into mills’.”
Vince said the deal would provide enough money to increase Ecotricity’s total generation to 100MW within 18 months.
Ecotricity already has planning consent for 20MW of wind and solar spread across six sites, which they had already started building.
Elizabeth Lutley from the infrastructure team at Aviva Investors added: “We are delighted to have worked with Ecotricity on this portfolio financing, building on our track record of bringing long tenor institutional money to the renewable sector.”
