LCA seeds feed-in-tariff company

Low Carbon Accelerator (LCA) has made its first new investment in 18 months.

The company has provided £500,000 of seed capital to Vigor Renewables in the form of non-voting preference shares with rights over 90% of the distributable profits.

Vigor has been set up to take advantage of the recently announced UK feed-in-tariffs. It aims to partner with land and commercial property owners to build, own and operate wind and solar power generating assets on sites across the UK.

Beginning in April 2010, the tariffs guarantee an inflation linked income for sub-5MW renewable energy projects, payable to the developer for 20 years in the case of wind developments and 25 years for solar.

The investment is the first since September 2008, when LCA took a more concentrated approach to its portfolio. It decided to halt new investment and focus on its strongest holdings in a bid to improve performance.

It resulted in the first two consecutive quarters of NAV growth since its launch for the year ended 30 November 2009.

Chief investment officer Steve Mahon says: “Vigor is an exciting investment for LCA, and should provide long-term stable income from each of its projects in a relatively short space of time.

“It is also a great opportunity to transform the UK building infrastructure and agricultural industry from users of power to active and profitable generators.”