The investment by InfraRed equals that made by Prudential in October 2014 and confirms full equity funding for the project from two British institutions. InfraRed is a global investment manager with a special focus on infrastructure and real estate. The company will make the investment from existing funds.
The tidal lagoon will generate around 500 GWh of electricity per year for 120 years, enough power to supply all of the domestic electricity for the Swansea Bay region including the city and county of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. It will help the UK to meet its carbon reduction targets by displacing more than 236,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The project is scheduled to reach financial close in the summer of 2015 with construction due to commence immediately after, creating almost 2,000 jobs.
“The power station is unique in that it not only leverages the estuary’s second highest tidal range in the world but it will also make a material contribution towards both the local economy in South Wales and the long term stability of sustainable energy supply in the UK” said Werner von Guionneau, Chief Executive, InfraRed Capital Partners.
Bryn Jones, Head of Development Infrastructure at InfraRed, added that the company has been at the forefront of developing infrastructure and renewable energy projects for nearly 20 years and that the Swansea Bay project continues the company’s tradition of development in the UK infrastructure market.
According to Mark Shorrock, Chief Executive of Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd, the tidal lagoon will provide a scalable blueprint for a UK-led global industry in that it will employ British industry to harness a British natural resource and return profits to British institutions. The lagoon could provide a blueprint for a further six such lagoons in the UK that, between them, could supply 8 percent of the country’s electricity for 120 years.
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