Corporate

Prime Minister David Cameron visits UK Green Investment Bank's Edinburgh headquarters

Announcements prior to September 2017, including this announcement, occurred under previous ownership.

15 May 2015

Earlier today Prime Minister David Cameron visited the UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) headquarters in Edinburgh.

The visit comes five years after the Prime Minister committed to establish the organisation.

GIB is the first bank of its kind in the world; set up by the UK Government to invest in new green infrastructure projects across the UK in areas including waste management, energy efficiency and offshore wind.

Edinburgh was selected as the headquarters of GIB in 2012, beating off competition from 34 other UK cities.

"Almost five years ago to the day we committed to create the world’s first green investment bank. It has now been up and running for two years and has already backed over forty new green energy infrastructure projects, bringing £7bn of new investment into every part of the UK. From its headquarters in Edinburgh it is leading the world in finding innovative solutions to make sure that the UK is at the forefront of the next generation of energy infrastructure."

Prime Minister David Cameron

"It was a pleasure to welcome the Prime Minister to our headquarters in Edinburgh. From here we have built a business which is envied and is being copied across the world. Our innovative business model is working - we are investing to support new projects, mobilising private capital and helping to establish new markets, all on fully commercial terms. These green investments will result in vital new, modern energy infrastructure for the UK and deliver a profit for UK taxpayers."

Lord Smith of Kelvin
Chair of GIB

Since its launch in November 2012, GIB has committed £1.8bn of capital to 46 projects across the UK supporting new investment in UK energy infrastructure of £7bn.

GIB has invested in eight projects in Scotland, bringing a total investment of up to £450m. This includes investments in low energy streetlighting in Glasgow, small-scale hydro-power investments in Crianlarich, a new renewable energy plant in Speyside that will provide heat to The Macallan whisky distillery and a new high technology waste plant in Lanarkshire.

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Notes to editors

The UK Green Investment Bank’s Scottish investments

Levenseat: £28.25m investment in £111m energy from waste plant and adjacent materials recycling facility at Forth by Lanark. Forecast to supply electricity equivalent to the needs of nearly 18,000 homes, save 1.4m tonnes of waste from going to landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of around 1.3m tonnes. It will create more than 100 jobs during construction and 50 full-time positions once complete.

Glasgow City Council streetlighting: £6.3m loan to finance the replacement of 10,000 lanterns along Glasgow’s main arterial roads. Expected to use 50% less energy than old versions and cut the council’s greenhouse gas emissions by in excess of 18,000 tonnes over 18 years. Energy saved is equivalent to the total annual electricity consumption of 1,250 households.

Community-scale renewables: £150m total investment in combined £260m lending programme for community-scale renewable projects managed by Temporis Capital and Albion Community Power. This will be invested across the UK with the majority in Scotland. The first is a £8.5m run-of-river hydro-power project near Crianlarich that will generate 8 GWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the power requirements of about 1,900 homes.

Speyside: £12.8m investment in a new £74.3m combined heat and power (CHP) plant near Craigellachie, Moray. It will generate enough renewable electricity to power more than 20,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 42,000 tCO2e per annum. The world-famous Macallan distillery will use the heat generated by the plant in the form of steam, a critical component of the distillation process. The project will create 123 jobs – 100 in peak construction and 23 permanent.

Distilleries: £2.5m investment in £5m boiler replacement programme in distilleries including Balmenach, Royal Brackla and Aberfeldy. A further £57,000 was invested in the installation of a £1.2m biomass boiler at Tomatin Distillery near Inverness. The boilers are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a combined total of 20,000 tonnes per year.