During 2010 the UK government announced it intended to decarbonise electricity production by incentivising green energy production through a range of incentives such as feed in tariffs and renewable obligation certificates. The purpose was to provide a bankable income profile for qualifying projects, which in most cases, provided a 20-year predictable income.
As a result of the attractive incentive levels, there was quick and widespread deployment of renewable technology, particularly the ‘low hanging fruit’ of solar PV and onshore wind. The incentives quickly attracted the attention of the investment community, and those previously involved in the property sector became heavily involved in the relatively simple technology deployment that solar and wind provided.
The key consideration in the majority of these projects was the property element, planning permissions, forms of lease and grid connections, rather than the efficient deployment and operation of the technology.
Incentives started to degrade over the following years prior to 2015 with many investment firms raising capital funds through tax driven EIS schemes, many millions of capital was deployed into large complicated biogas and synthetic gas projects, which required full engineering teams and appropriate levels of operating experience.
UK based EIS funds invested several hundred million into projects and assets that are now increasingly underperforming, and indeed insolvent. In 2019 EAG has been approached by a range of funds to assess, restructure and rescue these assets by way of acquisition and refurbishment.
Embarking on an acquisition process in the green gas, and associated sector throughout 2020, 2021 and 2022, is likely to result in a highly cash generative and much sought-after portfolio of investment grade assets. Recent announcements by the UK government have clearly indicated the direction of travel in the decarbonization of the heating and transport sectors, which EAG is perfectly positioned to take advantage of.