Ecotricity is no stranger to tapping customers for investment – it has already raised £38 million from the issuance of three mini-bonds since 2010.
Now, one of the UK’s leading green energy companies has received applications worth more than £12 million for its fourth bond.
Keen green beans take note: the bond closes tomorrow (Wednesday November 30).
Ecotricity promises that the bond enables its customers and the wider public to invest directly and share in the financial benefits of the company’s work.
Among the company’s recent activities are preparing for planning a grass-to-gas anaerobic digestion plant in Gloucestershire to rival fracking, which it hopes to start building in early 2017.
It also bought a minor 6.8 per cent stake in Good Energy, its main rival, earlier this year.
Ecotricity has been instrumental in installing charge points at service stations around the country in an effort to green the UK’s transport network.
However, its energy tariff prices, which, unlike other 100% renewable energy suppliers, also includes biogas in its mix, have recently been undercut by a number of smaller challengers, offering 100% renewable electricity for a lower price, such as Bulb Energy.
Ecobond four offers investors a return of 5% gross a year for Ecotricity customers, or 4.5% a year for everyone else.
The raise comes amid a flurry of green energy opportunities for investors, such as the Small Wind Co-op and the Swindon Solar Bond, through Abundance Investments.
Ecotricity founder, Dale Vince, said: “When we launched ecobond one, it was a pretty radical idea, with a simple ambition: to give people the opportunity to share in the financial benefits of the Green Energy revolution.
“With ecobonds one, two and three, we’ve raised almost £38 million – which has been a massive boost to our work.
“We’ve made great progress over the last twelve months – we’re supplying Green Energy to over 190,000 customers, we’ve finished four new wind parks, and we’ve just got approval to build our first Green Gas mill, the first of its kind in Britain.
“And now, to continue our momentum, we’ve launched ecobond four – which will give customers and the wider public the chance to share the benefits of the next phase of our work.”
Ecotricity previously issued ecobond one (2010) and ecobond two (2011), which were both oversubscribed and both raised £10 million. Ecobond three raised just under £18 million in autumn 2015.
To find out more about ecobond four, go to: https://ecobond.ecotricity.co.
