Energy & Environmental Finance

Financing for the renewables sectors

• Specialists in arranging and underwriting finance for renewable or green energy businesses and projects
• Provider of a wide range of structured and corporate financial products comprising debt and equity instruments
• Specific sector knowledge with experienced industry professionals
• Significant track record of completed deals

Renewable Energy

As governments around the world strive to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels, decrease emissions, combat global warming and seek secure energy supplies, renewable energy generation is increasingly important. Since the Bank lead-arranged a £330m financing of one of the UK's first major on-shore wind farms at the start of this decade, we have acted as lead or sole arranger in a diverse range of renewable energy sectors, covering wind, solar, hydro, landfill gas, biofuels and bioenergy.

By developing relationships with key sponsors within the sector, we have built up specialist knowledge of a number of technologies utilising a wide range of clean and sustainable fuel sources. We are able to provide the necessary finance to help the renewable energy sector develop its business and deploy its generative capacity.

On and Offshore Wind

The wind energy sector is a particular area of expertise for the team. We have funded a diverse portfolio of transactions with over 3,000MW generative capacity, with exposure to a significant number of projects and businesses worldwide. With wind energy increasingly becoming a force to be reckoned with as a supplement to energy generation, our focus is on providing the necessary finance to help the industry scale up its operations to help meet international renewable targets. We are currently providing solutions across the entire value chain to help manufacturers develop their businesses, to support developers fund their turbine supply arrangements and to assist in the acquisition and development of wind farms themselves.

With an increasing focus on the Offshore Wind sector, we are actively engaged in developing our activities in this area. Given the Bank's strong track record in the North Sea Oil industry and our detailed knowledge of the shipping industry through the Marine Finance team, we are well equipped to face these challenges.

Solar

While not having reached the maturity phase of the business cycle yet, this sector is proving to be a success story. Photovoltaic solar energy is currently the fastest growing type of alternative energy. Technological advancements in the photovoltaic market are moving at such a fast pace that grid parity will be reached in a relatively short time. This will allow a progressive reduction in government subsidies over time. Solar thermal, with higher investment needs and more complex technology challenges, has so far only attracted the big industrial players, however the long term growth prospects for solar thermal look strong. The Bank will continue to support its clients across Europe in developing their solar businesses and portfolios as it has done over the last year, having acted as lead arranger on 40MW of solar projects in Spain, in addition to helping developers fund their solar module supply agreements.

Biofuels

The European Biofuels industry is currently undergoing significant changes as blending targets are introduced and sponsors adapt to sustainable sources of Biofuels. We have financed both Bioethanol and Biodiesel projects in France and Germany, respectively. We are now focusing our efforts on supporting non-food/waste feedstock Biofuels projects.

Energy from Waste and Bioenergy

The EfW sector has the potential to be a large contributor to the future mix of renewable power sources. Municipal EfW projects also have the benefit of avoiding landfill and saving on the increasing gate fee costs. Bioenergy (particularly wood chip and straw biomass) is also a key growth area. The Bank has been involved in Bioenergy projects since the early 1990's and we intend to play a leading role in the both EfW and Bioenergy sectors as they continue to develop.

Emerging areas

As the green energy sector develops further, we will aim to provide finance solutions in emerging areas such as wave and tidal, carbon capture projects and energy storage and efficiency schemes.

Find out more

To discuss any aspect of our power sector expertise, please contact our Energy & Environmental Finance team on +44 (0)20 7012 9415 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).