A new Scottish renewables outfit called Renewco Power has launched with a commitment of €28m from SSE.
Renewco Power aims to accelerate the development of clean energy projects focusing on the roll-out of large-scale solar and wind farms across the UK and Europe.
It already has 1GW of early stage projects in the pipeline across the UK and Europe.
The Edinburgh-based company is targeting the development of assets with a capacity of more than 4GW within five years.
Renewco Power is backed by SSE via Corran Capital.
SSE’s financial contribution will enable Renewco to accelerate the implementation of the team’s high growth strategy.
Renewco’s founders include Frans van den Heuvel, former CEO of Solarcentury, and Alan Baker, former CEO of Airtricity Scotland and Forsa Energy.
The team is led by CEO, Gavin McCallum, who has a background in private equity and the energy sector including at BP Alternative Energy.
The executive team also includes Alp Karli, founder of solar power business, Value Renewables, as chief commercial officer and Romain Keyen as chief investment officer.
The founders have over 100 years of combined renewables development and investment experience, having successfully developed more than 10GW of renewables in over 50 countries, raising more than £2bn to finance these assets in the process.
The team was brought together by Gary Le Sueur, a former partner of SEP, who recently founded Corran Capital in Edinburgh to invest in clean energy and climate focused companies.
Le Sueur will chair Renewco and will be joined on the board by Derrick Allan, head of SGN Smart, the smart-meter service provider, and former chairman of Solarcentury.
McCallum said: “There is a growing and urgent demand for utility-scale renewables projects across Europe, and we are excited about the potential we see for Renewco.
“Renewco has a unique blend of entrepreneurial talent with deep power sector and financial expertise which we will use to accelerate new developments across Europe. We will be growing our team over the coming months, adding further commercial expertise to accelerate the delivery of our strategy.”