A new renewable power business, Renewco Power, has been launched with backing of £24 million from SSE plc via Corran Capital. It aims to develop large-scale solar and wind farms across the UK and Europe.
The Edinburgh-based company is targeting the development of assets with a capacity of more than 4GW within five years. It said it already has a gigawatt of early stage projects in the pipeline across the UK and Europe.
Renewco has been founded by Frans van den Heuvel, former chief executive of Solarcentury, and Alan Baker, former chief executive of Airtricity-Scotland and Forsa Energy. The chief executive is Gavin McCallum, formerly in private equity and the energy sector including at BP Alternative Energy, with Alp Karli, founder of solar power business, Value Renewables, and previously of Vestas, as chief commercial sfficer, and Romain Keyen, formerly of Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) as chief investment officer.
The team was brought together by Gary Le Sueur, a former partner of SEP, who founded Corran Capital in Edinburgh to invest in clean energy and climate focused companies. Le Sueur will chair Renewco
Martin Pibworth, SSE Group Energy & Commercial Director: said: ”Renewco has a first class management team and this financial investment is one we expect to generate strong returns. We see this as a complementary investment to SSE’s own core Renewables and Distributed Energy businesses and look forward to seeing Renewco deliver their ambitious plans.”