Saturday September 7 2024
Swindon & Wiltshire News
Good Energy, the Chippenham-based renewable electricity company, has secured a £45m finance facility which will allow it develop its solar generation capacity.
It has agreed the debt finance with GCP Infrastructure Investments, a London-listed infrastructure debt fund.
In a statement released today (Thursday) CEO Juliet Davenport said the funding “will significantly help the Group meet its objective of generating 50 percent of its customers’ electricity needs from its own renewable assets by 2016.”
She said the firm aims to build a further 18MW of solar sites, bringing its total capacity of wind and solar power to 42MW.
“The Facility will also be used to refinance the existing debt facility on the Hampole wind farm and its two existing operational solar sites,” said Ms Davenport.
She said the granting of the facility took place against a backdrop of tough trading conditions, caused in part by a mild year.
“(The) industry (has been) impacted by the warmest year since records began, and by lower wind speeds over the last few months of the second half,” she said.
“As a consequence, the company currently expects its profit before tax to be approximately £2.2 million for the year ended 31 December 2014, before an exceptional cost of £1 million relating to the refinancing of the existing debt facility on Hampole wind farm.”
The firm reported that electricity customer numbers were up 37 percent to around 50,5000, as gas customers were up 85 percent to 24,000. Feed-in tariff customer numbers rose 26 percent to 73,000 people.
“While recent customer demand for energy has been affected by the milder weather this year directly impacting on our revenues for 2014, I am very encouraged by the increasing numbers of customers choosing Good Energy and look forward to updating you at our full year results,” said Ms Davenport.
