Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) announces that it has completed a further clean energy infrastructure investment to fund the acquisition of the 9.2MW onshore wind farm at the Port of Tilbury, from SSE plc.
Tilbury is London's major port, providing fast, modern distribution services to the south east of England. The port is the largest port of Scottish-based Forth Ports Group and is a dynamic and diverse port, handling the full range of cargoes with specialist expertise in the handling of paper and forest products, containers, Ro Ro, grain and bulk commodities and construction and building materials.
SEP made the investment through its Environmental Capital Fund (ECF) which is targeted at infrastructure projects in the energy sector.
The wind farm comprises four 2.3MW, 80 metre hub height, Siemens SWT turbines which have been operating continually since the windfarm was commissioned in 2013. Together they generate sufficient renewable energy to cover 50% of the electricity demand of the port. Financial terms of the acquisition are not disclosed.
The wind farm benefits from a long-term Power Purchase Agreement with 100% of the renewable power generated being acquired by the Port of Tilbury London Limited.
A comprehensive service and maintenance contract for the turbines has been agreed with industrial conglomerate Siemens AG. In addition, SgurrEnergy, the renewable energy consultancy and part of the Wood Group, has been appointed as asset manager and will lead the operational and financial management of the wind farm alongside SEP’s in-house infrastructure asset management team.
This transaction is the second wind farm investment to be completed by SEP’s infrastructure team in recent weeks. It was announced earlier in June that ECF had provided equity funding for the construction of the €8.7 million, 4.6MW Curraghderrig wind farm in the Republic of Ireland.
Verena Rathgeber, a Principal in SEP’s infrastructure team said: “Port of Tilbury is a high quality operating windfarm and securing this asset marks a significant milestone for the Environmental Capital Fund towards meeting its objective of owning and operating a platform of high quality wind assets across the UK and Ireland. We are looking forward to working with Siemens and SgurrEnergy to ensure continued and consistent delivery of renewable energy to the Port of Tilbury.”
Robbie Gibson, director of asset management at Wood Group – clean energy, said: “We are delighted to be working with the infrastructure team at Scottish Equity Partners on the acquisition and asset management of the Port of Tilbury Wind Farm.”
He continued: “As part of our scope of work, we undertook technical due diligence and an operational energy yield, advising SEP pre-acquisition. Having been awarded the asset management contract we now look forward to supporting the project with our experienced asset management team and applying our asset optimisation expertise to the wind farm.”
ENDS
About Scottish Equity Partners
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) is a leading UK venture capital firm, specialising in investments in innovative, high growth technology companies.
SEP has offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, and manages primary and secondary funds backed by global financial institutions, pension funds and corporates. This includes the Environmental Capital Fund (ECF), an infrastructure investment fund targeted at small-scale, UK based, clean energy infrastructure projects - including energy efficiency, biomass, small-wind, CHP and district heating schemes. The fund is backed by a syndicate of financial investors led by Lexington Partners, the world's largest independent manager of secondary private equity and co-investment funds. SEP raised £135m for ECF and the fund was launched in September 2014.
For further information see: www.sep.co.uk
About SgurrEnergy
SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group’s clean energy business, is a leading renewable energy and grid integration consultancy, providing engineering and technical advisory services in onshore and offshore wind, solar and energy storage projects. Its global team of over 300 engineers and consultants has extensive international experience, having worked on over 160GW of renewable energy developments worldwide.
About the Port of Tilbury
The Port of Tilbury is London's major port, providing fast, modern distribution services for the benefit of the South East of England and beyond. The Port of Tilbury is a dynamic and diverse port, handling the full range of cargoes with specialist expertise in the handling of paper and forest products, containers, Ro Ro, grain and bulk commodities and construction and building materials.
Tilbury's strategic location makes it a natural point for distribution, with 18 million people living within 75 miles. Serving the UK's market, the port offers customers excellent transport links to and from the UK’s capital and across the South East where over 50% of the population live and work.
The port is a diverse multi-modal hub, covering around 1,100 acres and is well positioned to access the M25 orbital motorway and the rest of the UK's national motorway network. In addition, there are direct rail connections within the port, with access to the whole of the UK rail network, and dedicated barge facilities.