Aquila Energy Efficiency to review investment strategy as it announces range of new investments – Aquila Energy Efficiency (AEET) has announced plans to conduct a review of its investment strategy to ascertain how best to accelerate deployment, while maintaining the trust’s credit criteria and return objectives. An update will be provided to shareholders on the outcome of this review in due course.
This comes as non-executive directors Laura Sandys and Lisa Arnold have submitted their resignations to the board due to “a difference of opinion regarding the speed of deployment”. Their resignations are effective immediately.
AEET is also today announcing the first investments since its IPO in June last year. This includes a range of energy efficiency projects in Italy’s residential building sector worth €17m. To date €11.9m has been deployed. The investment will focus on improving the energy efficiency of 16 residential buildings in Italy, with AEET’s exposure prudently limited to tranches of 30%-40% of each project, and these will be managed by two energy services companies responsible for delivering a range of energy efficiency measures.
Solar PV projects
Furthermore, AEET has entered a partnership with Noleggio Energia, a leading platform for providing financing solutions for energy efficiency and energy generating projects in Italy. The partnership has resulted in securing financing for two projects, which have been implemented, and the trust expects to finance additional projects, one of which has already been approved by the board.
The first investment of €350,000 is to finance a rooftop solar PV project located in Lombardy for the Italian food product manufacturer, Galletti di Galletti Aurelio. The second investment of €140,000 is to finance a rooftop solar PV project in Veneto for Enofrigo SpA, an Italian designer and manufacturer of wine cabinets and refrigerated displays. A third investment, Tecnocryo has been agreed between the company and Noleggio Energia for a rooftop solar PV project, also based in Lombardy, for a total investment volume of €1.5m.
A further investment of €850,000 has also been made into a project developed by CO-VER Power Technologies, a leading Italian engineering firm. The project, a roof-mounted solar PV plant totalling 901.6 kWp, is based in Ascoli Piceno, Marche in central Italy. This financing is for a Solar PV plant operational since 2013, as opposed to a new build.
First UK investment
AEET has also made its first investment in the UK market. The company has invested €300,000 in a group of four operational lighting projects developed by a Northern Ireland based lighting service company, Lumenstream Limited. AEET views this as the first of a potential pipeline of projects with this counterparty.
It said at a time when millions of businesses and households across Europe and the UK are facing a significant increase in energy prices, an acceleration of the adoption of energy efficiency measures and a reduction in primary energy consumption, are a necessary and effective part of the solution, with the additional benefit of reducing carbon emissions.
AEET : Aquila Energy Efficiency to review investment strategy as it announces range of new investments