The Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF) has been launched by the Scottish Government to provide private financing for green power and renewable heating schemes.
Along with renewable districting heating schemes, the fund will also target investment in innovative renewable technologies, community-owned renewables and wave and tidal energy.
The REIF is designed to complement existing public and private sector finance schemes available in Scotland and will typically provide bespoke loans, loan guarantees and equity finance alongside co-investment partners. It will be delivered by the Scottish Investment Bank on behalf of the Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies.
Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond said: “We are determined to ensure Scotland is among the world’s key destinations for investment in low carbon technologies, building on our long-established reputation in engineering, innovation and financial services.
“This fund will help leverage further significant private finance into key areas of the renewables sector where specific funding gaps have been indentified.”
Scottish Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson added: “Building on the expertise of the Scottish Investment Bank, this new fund will not only help accelerate Scotland’s progress in key sub-sector areas of the renewables industry, but will be pivotal to unlocking greater investment from the private sector by sharing the risk through the co-investment, co-lending and other potential catalytic intervention model.”
The launch of the REIF comes less than a year after the UK Treasury agreed to a Scottish Government proposal to release half of the £206 million Fossil Fuel Levy surpluses generated from Scotland’s energy industry to invest in renewables projects. The remainder was made available to capitalise the UK Green Investment Bank.
