GBN Member Transaction Database

GIB invested GB£100 million in a lending program throgh Temporis to support a total of GB£200 million in investment in onshore renewables. The only GIB investment made through the Temporis fund as of year-end 2016 is in the 52.9MW Blackcraig wind farm. GIB and KKR have committed GB£82.7 million of senior debt to the consented 52.9MW Blackcraig wind farm via Temporis Capital LLP – GIB is contributing GB£49.5 million of the total finance package. The 23-turbine project, located in Dumfries and Galloway, is owned by project sponsor Blue Energy.

CEFC committed a loan of up to AU$9.1 million to the University of Melbourne to accelerate initiatives that will help it improve its sustainability in its push towards carbon neutral operations. The University of Melbourne is undertaking projects involving a range of energy efficient technologies and innovative renewable technologies which are expected to reduce grid electricity use by about 8%. The CEFC is financing the University of Melbourne through a staged direct loan facility that is designed to work with the University’s rollout of its sustainability upgrade plans.This transaction was the first CEFC university clean energy financing transaction.

CEFC committed AU$67 million as part of a five-year, AU$276 million senior secured debt financing to what will be Australia’s third largest wind farm, at Ararat in Victoria. The wind farm has secured a AU$276 million debt financing package through a financing consortium comprising Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Canada’s Export Credit Agency, Export Development Canada (EDC) and the CEFC. This is the first large-scale hybrid contracted and merchant wind farm in Australia. The Ararat project benefits from a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Australian Capital Territory Government, guaranteeing the purchase of approximately 40 per cent of the energy produced at the site. The PPA was awarded under the ACT’s wind auction in February 2015.

CEFC provided up to AU$100 million as a cornerstone investment in a new equity fund for bioenergy and energy from waste. The fund is set to benefit a broad cross-section of the economy including local government, mining, forestry and agriculture. The Australian Bioenergy Fund is targeting equity investments in projects from AU$2 million to AU$100 million, ranging from small-scale anaerobic digestion to mid-scale energy from waste developments. It is Australia’s first waste and bioenergy investment fund.

CEFC committed up to AU$20 million in cornerstone debt finance for the development of the Barcaldine Solar Farm in Central Queensland. The AU$69 million 20MW AC (25MW DC) solar farm is expected to generate enough power each year to satisfy the needs of around 5,300 households. The Barcaldine Solar Farm’s location on the fringe of the National Energy Market grid will significantly reduce network losses experienced by the current transmission feed from Clermont, which is about 660 kilometres to the east. In addition, it will demonstrate how building new capacity around the grid can lead to significant saving in grid expansion and upgrade costs.

The experience developed from building a solar PV farm in a fringe-of-grid area will demonstrate the potential for solar projects to increase the reliability and quality of power at fringe-of-grid locations. This experience can also provide useful lessons for the future rollout of off-grid remote area solar PV projects, such as those serving remote communities and mining operations.

GIB committed GB£47 million of equity to a new GB£107 million Energy from Waste (EfW) plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The facility will be located adjacent to Bombardier’s wing facility in the city’s Harbour Estate. GIB has made its investment in the 14.85 MW plant as part of a joint venture – Full Circle Generation – with developer RiverRidge Energy Limited, Equitix and P3P Partners.

The plant, which will be fuelled by feedstock derived from household and commercial waste, is the largest EfW project to be financed in Northern Ireland. A long-term feedstock contract has been agreed with waste management company Pioneer Fuels and a Power Purchase Agreement has been signed with Bombardier.

The City of Melbourne is undertaking a AU$30 million program of clean energy initiatives to help it reach its goal of zero net emissions by 2020, using finance from the CEFC. The CEFC’s finance is helping the City to accelerate its program of works and reduce its energy use and carbon emissions, while also encouraging commercial property owners to implement their own energy saving initiatives.

GIB joined Siemens Financial Services, Macquarie Capital and project developer RWE Innogy as 25% joint equity partners in the GB£1.5 billion Galloper offshore wind farm. The joint venture has also secured GB£1.37 billion of debt facilities from a consortium of 12 commercial banks plus the European Investment Bank (EIB), making it the UK’s first construction-ready offshore wind project finance deal.

United Wind will install over 160 distributed wind energy systems for residential, agricultural and commercial customers throughout Central and Western New York State, facilitated by a US$4.0 million revolving construction loan from NY Green Bank. United Wind’s systems will foster greater access to renewable energy, while NYGB’s participation will help develop a strong track record for distributed renewable energy construction financings in the State.

Together with U.S. Bank as tax equity provider for the portfolio, NYGB is establishing a precedent financing model for distributed wind and facilitating deployment to establish the scale required to attract future private sector finance providers. The transaction structure utilized is broadly applicable to other new and innovative distributed energy business models where there has been limited scale to date.

GIB and John Laing Group plc committed million of equity to a new GB£138 million renewable energy facility in North East England, developed by Estover Energy. GIB will make a GB£21 million investment in the project, with John Laing investing in a stake worth GB£27 million. Barclays provided the remainder of the funding as debt, 60% of which will be guaranteed by the Danish export credit agency EKF.

The biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant in Cramlington, Northumberland, will generate 213 GWh of renewable electricity annually – enough to power 52,000 homes. Much of the generated electricity will be purchased by Statkraft under a long-term Power Purchase Agreement, but the area’s thriving pharmaceutical sector, recognised as an essential element of the North East economy, will benefit from its output.

The CEFC loaned AU$40 million to a subsidiary of St George Community Housing to build more than 200 new energy efficient homes and upgrade a portion of its 4,300 existing properties with energy efficient technologies, directly benefiting tenants through lower electricity bills. The new properties will be built to a minimum 4-star Green star rating or a 7-star rating under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). The loan to SGCH was the first of its kind for the CEFC, demonstrating the potential for a community housing sustainability program.

A US$25.0 million credit facility provided by NY Green Bank will allow Level Solar, a New York-based solar provider that designs and installs systems at no cost to the customer, to materially grow its customer base. By providing renewable power to homeowners through long-term power purchase agreements, Level Solar is expected to reach sufficient scale to attract financing entirely through private markets.

NYGB’s US$25.0 million financial warehouse facility – which could ultimately be upsized to US$50.0 million – provides revolving credit to Level Solar to fund residential solar installations, enabling it to reach thousands of new customers. This transaction type is replicable for other participants in the solar market in New York State – specifically smaller developers with early marketplace success but limited scale to date – providing precedent for further expanding residential renewable energy in the State.

In partnership with Eclipx Group, an established leader in vehicle fleet leasing, fleet management and diversified financial services across Australia and New Zealand, CEFC committed AU$50 million to support the increased uptake of low emissions vehicles by corporate, government and not-for-profit fleet buyers. The AU$50 million package will provide Eclipx corporate, government and not-for-profit fleet buyers with access to favourable loan interest rates when choosing eligible low emissions passenger and light commercial vehicles. The CEFC finance will be available through an Eclipx sponsored, publicly-rated securitisation warehouse, providing a significant demonstration of the potential of alternative funding structures to finance low emissions technologies.

NYGB committed US$20.0 million of subordinated capital to RenewFund Finance to support the extension of up to US$100 million of unsecured EE and RE loans to as many as 12,000 homeowners in NY State. Together with a warehouse line of credit provided by Citi, the capital will finance the purchase of New York State residential energy efficiency loan receivables, as well as a small portion of renewable energy loan receivables.

GFO committed to invest US$3 million in a fund with Shizen Energy Co., Ltd. for a solar projects in Kyushu. This is a solar power fund covering three prefectures in the Kyushu area. It is expected to motivate local companies to generate solar power.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council was the first local authority in England to secure finance from the GIB to replace its existing streetlights with lower energy alternatives. GIB and its legal advisors Shepherd and Wederburn LLP have standardised the Green Loan investment process to save the public sector time and money in agreeing a financing package for energy efficiency projects.

GIB agreed to provide funding of GB£8.2 million alongside a grant of GB£5.1 million from the Department for Transport (DfT) as part of a GB£13.5 million programme of refurbishments that will see 14,000 lanterns and around 4,000 other pieces of illuminated street furniture, replaced with energy-saving LED alternatives.

CEFC committed up to AU$15 million finance towards the AU$40 million Integrated Solar and Battery Storage project in north-east of Perth in Western Australia. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is supporting the project with AU$20.9 million funding. Leading French renewable energy firm Neoen has acquired the project and is providing equity towards it. A six-year power purchase agreement will enable Sandfire Resources to access the power generated by the solar plant at agreed rates. If the mine continues operating past this point, ARENA funding will be paid back as the plant continues to generate solar energy.

GFO committed to invest US$5 million in a fund with Kagoshima Development Co., Ltd. for a hot renewable power generation projects in Kagoshima. This is the regional fund jointly organized and operated by both local governments and financial institutions to promote renewable energy power generation projects with local companies in Kagoshima.

CEFC loaned AU$4.7 million to Epuron to construct, own and maintain a AU$7 million, 1.8MW solar photovoltaic system at the Ayers Rock Resort. ARENA is also contributing funding.

CEFC provided AU$50 million through Firstmac to fund business and personal asset finance leases and loans to boost the uptake of energy efficient equipment and low emissions and electric vehicles.

Queensland-based Landfill Gas Industries (LGI) is expanding its waste-to-energy operations with finance from CEFC. LGI was one of the successful bidders in the first round of contracts under the Australian Government’s new Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). Up to AU$10 million in CEFC finance will facilitate LGI’s installation of 6 MW of electricity generation using biogas-fired generators at six landfill sites in Southern and Central Queensland. The CEFC finance demonstrates the CEFC’s potential to accelerate projects that abate carbon and are eligible for funding through the ERF.

CEFC provided up to a AU$100 million loan to major energy retailer Origin to assist in its rollout of solar PV for Australian households and business. With Solar as a Service, Origin owns, installs and maintains the rooftop solar systems, and eligible residential and business customers are able to buy the solar energy generated from the solar system at a lower rate than average retail electricity tariffs.

Albion Community Power 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 Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) and Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) committed GB£50 million, GB£10 million and GB£10 million respectively to ACP in 2015. The finance will be used to provide equity funding of between GB£1 million and GB£10 million for a broad range of community-scale renewable construction projects including run-of-river hydro-power, onshore wind on brownfield sites such as industrial estates, and biogas projects including anaerobic digestion and landfill gas.

The pipeline will be built in partnership with project developers such as Infinite Renewables, based in Bridgend, Wales, and Green Highland Renewables, based in Perth, Scotland. ACP’s objective is to create a portfolio of small, decentralised renewable generation projects closer to the sources of demand.

CEFC committed up to AU$125 million as cornerstone equity in the High Income Sustainable Office Trust (HISOT), a new AU$400 million wholesale property fund working to improve the energy performance of commercial office properties in major metropolitan markets on the eastern seaboard. Managed by leading real estate fund manager EG, HISOT will buy and refurbish office properties to significantly lift their energy and operating performance. The fund is targeting a portfolio about 12 core Australian commercial properties in major metropolitan office markets on the eastern seaboard.

CEFC provided AU$120 million through the National Australia Bank (NAB) to support a major investment programme to help Australian businesses cut their energy and operating costs and lift business performance. The NAB’s AU$120 million CEFC-supported program, which provides 0.7% pa off equipment finance rate on qualifying assets for the life of the loan, is available across a broad commercial base, with a particular emphasis on agribusiness and regional Australia. The finance supports small and large-scale projects of up to AU$5 million, with the benefits of the CEFC investment flowing directly through to the business operators. Equipment, loan, hire purchase or finance lease options are available as well as tailored repayments to suit cash flows. Typically no deposit is required up front.