Farming community capitalise on Scottish Government Energy Strategy
The ILI Group, one of the UK’s leading renewable energy developers, has launched a bond which gives landowners and farmers the opportunity to get involved in what will be one of the country’s largest development projects.
It will provide up to 1.2 gigawatts of clean renewable energy to the grid and construct up to 5000 energy efficient homes at various locations throughout the country.
The ILI Group of companies have worked with landowners and the farming community for the past fourteen years and have built up a strong reputation for attaining successful planning applications for renewable energy projects throughout the country.
Sister company ILI (Renewable Energy) was set up in 2009 to exclusively deal with single wind turbine developments and achieved 96 successful planning consents, more than any other company in the UK.
Intelligent Land Investments set up in 2004 dealt exclusively with residential projects and has two in North Lanarkshire in the final stages of the planning process and expect to deliver over 550 houses this year.
However with the single wind turbine market slowing down, CEO Mark Wilson has created an opportunity for landowners and farmers to share in the returns that Energy storage and residential can achieve.
'Full energy security'
Mark Wilson said that energy storage will be the next step in achieving full energy security.
“The Scottish Government’s consultation on our energy future highlights the need for effective and reliable energy storage solutions throughout the country. We believe that pumped storage hydro offers the best solution as it is the most advanced and most proven of all storage options,” Mr Wilson said.
“It works by having two large bodies of water, with one set above the other. During peak times when a large amount of energy is required water drops from the higher reservoir to the lower through a series of turbines generating the necessary electricity.
“Then during off peak times, most likely at night, renewable energy surplus mainly from onshore wind is used to pump the water back up to the top reservoir essentially creating a massive battery.
“The technology his well proven and can last for over 100 years. We are working closely with a number of landowners in Scotland plus have support from industry leaders such as SSE, Scottish Water, Aecom and many others.”
'UK's need for new homes'
At the same time, the company is expanding its residential arm and has secured new sites with high potential for development as well as continuing to source others.
“The UK’s need for new homes has been well documented and with the focus now on energy efficiency our plans for new developments fall very much into that category,” Mr Wilson explained.
“Our plan is to include a renewable heat source as well as the latest energy efficiency technologies in all our residential developments.”
ILI Group CEO Mark Wilson continued: “We have worked with many landowners over the years, providing income to those on whose land our projects were developed however unfortunately not all sites were suitable for development.
“In our view too many missed out on this welcome income due to unsuitable land so for this new project we are offering landowners and farmers exclusive access to a bond issue which will part fund the project and give them a share in the profits.
“With onshore wind we created over £61M of construction work and over £234 million of future revenue. The majority of these projected were funded by big corporate companies. This time we are giving all the landowners and farmers the opportunity to reap these big returns.”
“We are extremely proud of what have achieved and what we have planned for the future. The bond purchase will give all landowners and farmers the opportunity to make three times their investment which is fantastic but the norm for big London funds.”
For further information please contact Intelligent Land Investments (ILI) Chief Executive Officer Mark Wilson, 01698 891 352 or email at mw@ili-energy.com