A SCOTTISH renewable power business formed by a team of leading energy sector entrepreneurs has launched today, with a £24 million commitment from low carbon infrastructure company SSE –a principal partner of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow.
Renewco Power aims to accelerate the development of clean energy projects focusing on the roll-out of large-scale solar and wind farms across the UK and Europe.
The clean energy transition is a critical part of the global response to the climate emergency, which the United Nations recently described as a “code red for humanity”.
Edinburgh-based Renewco already has a gigawatt of early stage projects in the pipeline in the UK and across Europe.
The company is targeting the development of assets with a capacity of more than 4GW (gigawatts) within five years – equivalent to powering approximately two million households with clean energy, more than all the homes in Paris (1.1m), Madrid (1.2m) or Manchester (1.2m).
Renewco Power is backed by a £24m investment from FTSE 100 energy company, SSE plc via Corran Capital.
SSE’s financial contribution will enable Renewco to accelerate the implementation of the team’s high growth strategy.
The new company’s founders are a highly experienced and entrepreneurial group, including two of Europe’s most successful renewable power entrepreneurs, Frans van den Heuvel, former CEO of Solarcentury, and Alan Baker, former CEO of Airtricity-Scotland and Forsa Energy.
They are led by CEO Gavin McCallum, who has a background in private equity and the energy sector, including BP Alternative Energy, with Alp Karli, founder of solar power business, Value Renewables, and previously of Vestas, as chief commercial officer, and Romain Keyen, formerly of Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), as chief investment officer.
The founders have more than 100 years’ of combined renewables development and investment experience, having successfully developed more than 10GW of renewables in more than 50 countries, raising over £2 billion to finance these assets in the process.
They were all brought together by Gary Le Sueur, a former partner of SEP, who recently founded Corran Capital in Edinburgh to invest in clean energy and climate focused companies.
He will chair Renewco and will be joined on the board by Derrick Allan, head of SGN Smart, the smart-meter service provider, and former chairman of Solarcentury.
McCallum said: “There is a growing and urgent demand for utility-scale renewables projects across Europe, and we are excited about the potential we see for Renewco.
“Renewco has a unique blend of entrepreneurial talent with deep power sector and financial expertise which we will use to accelerate new developments across Europe.
“We will be growing our team over the coming months, adding further commercial expertise to accelerate the delivery of our strategy.”
Martin Pibworth, SSE Group energy and commercial director, added: “Renewco has a first class management team and this financial investment is one we expect to generate strong returns.
“We see this as a complementary investment to SSE’s own core renewables and distributed energy businesses and look forward to seeing Renewco deliver their ambitious plans.”
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