UK green energy company Ecotricity has launched a third bond as it looks to raise up to £25 million (US$ 38 million)to assist in building more green energy projects in Britain.
Funds from the ecobonds one and two helped finance the building of a hybrid solar energy park and four wind power projects totalling nearly 20MW of capacity. ecobond three will offer investors a return of 5.5% per annum and help finance six new green energy projects already in the first stages of construction – projects that could generate enough green energy to power over 10,000 homes.
“When we launched the first ecobond five years ago, it was a fairly radical idea – we wanted to give people the chance to share in the financial benefits of the Green Energy revolution as well as cutting out the banks that generally charge borrowers more than they pay investors,” Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said.
“ecobond three stays true to that philosophy; it’s about democratising the energy sector and the financial sector at the same time – giving people the chance to join us in our work as well as directly accessing the kind of interest rates that banks charge borrowers. It will also help more green energy projects to be built in Britain – the first two ecobonds helped us in progressing a number of new green energy projects and we’ve got another six projects that will benefit from ecobond three.”
Ecotricity previously issued ecobond one (2010) and ecobond two (2011), which were both oversubscribed and both raised £10 million.