With new projects open for investment five days before the start of the talks, from 26th November to 6th December £2.17 million has been raised for the 500kW Upper Pitforthie Windgen wind project Aberdeenshire; £119,000 for Abundance’s first biomass project Minnow Valley Biomass in Wales and £46,000 for Ecossol PV across the UK. Expected returns are 12% interest per year, and 8% and 7% IRR over 19 years respectively.
The UK now produces 25% of it’s electricity from renewable energy, predicted to be 30% or more by 2020, whilst London based Abundance has raised £14m in direct investment for 13 renewable energy projects totalling 9.5 GWh of clean electricity production in three years. The organisation recently announced the launch of the world’s first renewable energy pension and is currently developing a proposition to enable cities and citizens to invest at a municipal level.
Bruce Davis, Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director of Abundance said: “Even if the UK Government has made some frankly embarrassing moves recently away from supporting crucial renewable energy development, our research and experience with investors proves support for it remains strong outside the Westminster village.
“People who want to actively support renewable energy can choose to invest as little as £5 in one or more of these projects, enjoy bank-beating returns at low risk and know that they have done their bit towards the cause world leaders are debating this week.”
This growing demand for ethical, low carbon investments follows the results of The Great British Money survey in June this year, finding that 66% of the British public agree that investments in fossil fuels are getting more risky. Capital is at risk and returns can be variable. Investments are long term and may not be readily realisable.