Member Article

Newcastle law firm appointed to national energy investment panel

Commercial law firm, Muckle LLP, has been appointed to a national panel to advise Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL).

The manager of a specialist energy efficiency fund into which the UK Government’s Green Investment Bank (GIB) has made a £50m commitment.

Since being appointed to the panel, Muckle has already completed a deal involving a £2m investment into ReEnergise Finance Ltd’s Smart Energy Finance vehicle, which has been set up to provide loans, primarily to SMEs in the North East and across the UK, for energy efficiency projects.

Initial loans are in progress for biomass and lighting projects for a variety of organisations including a garden centre and a training provider. The investment could eventually build a portfolio of up to £10m of assets.

Typical projects will be from £25,000 to £400,000 and could include biomass boilers, low energy lighting and combined heat and power, as well as other energy efficiency and micro generation technologies.

GIB, through the SDCL fund, has provided £1m of the funding, matched by £1m from SI Capital R&S1. The funding model means businesses will start saving money from day one, with an immediate reduction in their energy bills of around 20%.

In respect of the Re-energise investment, Shaun Kingsbury, Chief Executive, of GIB, said: “The investment announced today will help small businesses across the country to save money. Energy is a significant cost for any company, and putting in place energy efficiency measures will have a real impact on these organisations’ bottom line. The funding model means that they won’t need to find the capital upfront, and can pay for the capital costs from the savings they make on energy bills. Energy efficiency makes good commercial and environmental sense.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .