UK-listed sustainable energy developer and investor Triodos Renewables has teamed up with the Luxembourg-registered Triodos Renewables Europe Fund to acquire 49.8 percent of the Ransonmoor wind farm in Cambridgeshire, England, from Fenpower.
Triodos Renewables is managed by Triodos Bank, a Netherlands-based banking group which claims to have an ethical approach, while Triodos Renewables Europe Fund is managed by Triodos Investment Management, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triodos Bank.
UK developer Fenpower, meanwhile, is a joint venture between Triodos Renewables, Ventus VCT (Venture Capital Trust) and the Boughton family.
Ransonmoor is a five-turbine, 10-megawatt (MW) onshore wind farm located near the Fenland town of March, with three turbines having been operational since 2007 and two since 2008. The farm generates enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of 5,720 homes.
Kim de Boer, fund manager at Triodos Renewables Europe Fund, said the deal marked “the first investment we’ve made in the UK renewables market and we hope it will be the first of many more to follow. The renewable energy market in the United Kingdom represents ample opportunities”.
Triodos Renewables Europe Fund was launched in 2006 as a sub-fund of Triodos SICAV II, the first Luxembourg investment company set up by Triodos Bank. It invests in small- to-medium-sized European producers of green power, mainly wind farms and solar energy power plants.
According to the Triodos Bank website, the Fund has averaged an annual return of 3.09 percent during the past five years and had total net assets of more than €61.5 million as at 4 April 2013.