UK’s first green energy ISA raises £600,000 – in a weekend

The UK’s first Green ISA has attracted investment of more than half a million pounds – in just four days.

The Swindon Green ISA – the UK’s first Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) to allow ordinary people to invest directly in renewable energy, tax-free – was launched on Friday (November 11) by Abundance Investment.

And by Monday the fund had reached a staggering £600,000 – 25 percent of the total.

The Green ISA follows the very successful launch earlier this year in Swindon of the UK’s first council solar bond, which sold out a month early.

The Swindon Green ISA is another solar bond investment – this time it will fund a new solar farm on a council-owned former landfill site at Chapel Farm in Blunsdon.

The bond will have an average annual rate of return of six percent for a period of 20 years with a minimum investment of just £5.

Bruce Davis, cofounder and joint managing director of Abundance, said: “This new product brings ISA investment directly into the real world: it gives ordinary people the chance to put their money into something local which will make a real difference to the future of their town and their own aspirations too.

“Investors’ money will be working harder than it would in the bank, boosting Swindon’s economy and sustainable infrastructure, and returns will be tax-free.”

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid,was full of praise for the initiative, saying: “This is an excellent example of a local council working with the private sector to provide local people with a means of investing in their local community and its infrastructure. I wish it every success.”

The solar farm is expected to make a contribution from profits towards community initiatives and will help Swindon move even closer to its goal to install 200MW of renewable capacity by 2020, enough to meet the equivalent electricity requirements of every home in the Borough.

Completion of Chapel Farm, which would have a capacity of five megawatts, would take the total to 167MW – over 80 percent of the target.

The solar farm already has planning consent and has been developed by Public Power Solutions, a wholly-owned company of Swindon Borough Council.

It will be managed by a new limited company, wholly owned by Swindon Borough Council, and will start to generate energy by Spring next year. It will cost £5.4m to construct, with £3m coming from the council’s investment, and the remaining £2.4m from investors in the local community and across Britain, via Abundance.

The new Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) has been made possible following a Government announcement that from 1st November, the IFISA can include peer-to-peer investments such as debentures, allowing individuals to invest directly into businesses and projects.