Government News: Top Stories

Government invests 100 million pounds in clean energy funds
by Henning Gloystein

Reuters Translate This Article
6 August 2012

LONDON (Reuters) - The government will invest 100 million pounds with two specialist investment houses to encourage investment into improving Britain's energy efficiency, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Monday.

Specialist fund managers at Equitix and Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL) will use the money—which will be provided by UK Green Investment, part of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills—to attract foreign cash needed to improve Britain's energy efficiency.

'The fund managers will be actively encouraging domestic investment,' Clegg said, speaking at the British government's Global Business Summit on Energy in London.

Clegg said the low carbon sector was growing at an annual rate of 4.4 percent and that it was worth 3.3 trillion pounds ($5.15 trillion) worldwide in 2011.

'The biggest and savviest economies are crowding in: China, Germany, Brazil, Korea,' Clegg said.

'The UK is stepping up its game. The UK is the sixth-largest market in low carbon goods and environmental services and this Coalition government is unreservedly committed to helping our low carbon sector thrive.'

Clegg said renewable energy could deliver between 30 and 45 percent of the UK's energy by 2030.

Equitix is an infrastructure investment company that focuses on UK Government infrastructure projects.

SDCL is an investment banking and advisory firm focusing on large scale sustainable development projects.

Speaking at the same summit, Britain's energy and climate change secretary Edward Davey said the UK would have to invest around 110 billion pounds ($171.59 billion) into the green energy sector in order to cope with the retirement of a fifth of its current power generation by 2020.

'The existing players don't have the cash to achieve the UK targets so the UK needs to attract big foreign investors,' he said.

Despite the vast sums of cash needed to replace Britain's ageing electricity generation capacity, Davey said he was 'very confident' that the industry would achieve this target by the end of the decade.

($1 = 0.6411 British pounds)

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Alison Birrane)

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