Energy Saving Investments (ESI), an Equitix managed fund in which the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) is a cornerstone investor, has announced a fund of £4.9 million for its first energy efficiency project. The funding will join a further £5.1 million investment provided by the Equitix Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF) to replace inefficient heating systems with biomass boilers in both public and private community facilities.
The £10 million investment is being made through the energy services company Roundwood Energy Limited which is responsible for financing, installing, maintaining and fuelling the new systems for a period of up to 20 years. The company is supported by its technology partner, Woodpecker Energy Limited of Yeovil, Somerset, which manufactures wood pellet and wood chip biomass boilers.
Non-domestic energy efficiency (NDEE) is one of the Green Bank’s priority sectors. The bank awarded the competitive fund mandate to Equitix to invest £50 million, matched by private investors, to drive investment in small-scale low carbon infrastructure requiring less than £30 million of financing. The investment could fund over 60 projects in both private and public sectors thereby saving customers up to 30 percent on their energy bills as well as reducing carbon emissions and supporting the green economy. Customers will not need to make an upfront capital investment in order to switch their heating systems to biomass and applications are now open.
“The Green Investment Bank is helping to fund energy efficiency measures for everyone from our largest companies, to individual households through the Green Deal” said Shaun Kingsbury, Chief Executive of the Green Investment Bank. “Today's announcement will provide a low-cost and straightforward way for a range of organisations like schools, leisure centres and local businesses to switch their old, inefficient and high emission boilers for new energy efficient biomass ones; saving energy, cutting emissions and saving them money.”
The project is expected to cut carbon emissions by around 150,000 tonnes over the 20 year life of the investment. Although Woodpecker is based in Yeovil, its boilers are manufactured in Northern Ireland and use ENplus A1 standard wood pellets produced in the UK. Organisations interested in switching to biomass should contact Roundwood Energy in the first instance.
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