Greencoat raises initial £277m for new UK renewables fund

UK-based renewables manager Greencoat Capital has raised an initial £277 million ($360.8 million; €334 million) for a new fund focused on UK renewables.

Greencoat Renewable Income is the firm’s first vehicle aiming to include wind, solar and bioenergy assets. Its previous private markets vehicles focused on solar opportunities alone, while its flagship London-listed fund – Greencoat UK Wind – has always maintained its focus on one area.

The new fund has collected its initial capital from the UK pension collective Brunel Pension Partnership and SAUL, a superannuation scheme linked to the University of London. It is predominantly seeking operational UK assets.

The vehicle has been seeded with three investments: a share of the Templeborough Biomass Power Plant, a 40MW operating waste wood biomass plant in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which was acquired from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in October; a share of two of the largest low carbon greenhouses in the UK, which are under construction; and a commitment to Greencoat Solar II, a UK-focused fund that has raised more than £1 billion since its formation in 2017. The initial investments represent deployment of about £130 million, Greencoat said in a statement.

The bioenergy deals are the first agreed by Greencoat since it hired Minal Patel, James Samworth and Hugh Unwin from Foresight Group last April to establish a bioenergy investment unit.

The fund is a long-term, closed-end structure but does not have a stated target, a spokesman for Greencoat told Infrastructure Investor. He declined to state the targeted returns of the fund. Greencoat Solar II was also launched without a specific target, and Greencoat maintains it is now the largest fund dedicated to UK solar assets.