London Energy Efficiency Fund invests £65 million for a greener capital

Amber Green, the manager of the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF) and a division of the specialist infrastructure fund manager Amber Infrastructure Limited, has successfully invested over £65 million US$91 million of public funds to improve energy efficiency in over 76 public and private buildings across 9 London boroughs. 

The recent deployment of a £14.5 million loan agreement to finance the installation and operation of an energy efficiency heat network for 15,000 new homes in the London's newest residential district, Greenwich Peninsula, marks the completion of LEEF’s initial funding cycle.

LEEF’s investment portfolio now includes:

• £20 million investment to the Tate Foundation for the installation of low-carbon heat and cooling systems across the Tate’s London estate including Tate Modern, Tate Britain and its local storage facilities.
• £14.5 million to Greenwich Peninsula ESCo Ltd (GPEL) mentioned above.
• £12 million to St. George’s Healthcare NHS Trust Hospital, Tooting to cut the hospital’s energy output by 39% and reduce carbon emissions.
• £6 million to the London Borough of Enfield for the Lee Valley Heat Network designed to heat and distribute water to over 6,800 homes and businesses.
• £4.7 million to the Salters Livery Company for a series of energy system upgrades which will reduce consumption by 39%.
• £4.6 million to London Borough of Hackney’s RE:NEW project to support new communal heating networks.
• £3.5 million committed to London Borough of Croydon to fund an authority wide RE:FIT scheme installing energy saving infrastructure.

Following to Amber’s active approach as infrastructure asset management, LEEF will continue to re-invest the capital generated from the returns on initial investments.

LEEF is part of the European Commission’s Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) initiative and is helping in the London’s urban regeneration agenda.

In total, LEEF’s investments have enabled £470 million of projects throughout London, delivering a 6 times leverage effect from public seed capital.

Leo Bedford, Director of LEEF at Amber Green said: 

“Since 2011, we have seen a huge rise in demand from public and private sector landlords in London to make the residential and commercial real estate they own and manage more energy efficient. Amber has worked with a number of public and private sector partners across the Capital to achieve a 30% average reduction in energy consumption across LEEF’s portfolio, dramatically reducing the cost and carbon output in some of London’s most iconic real estate."