Shaun Kingsbury loves wind turbines, is happy to recycle,A wind
farm is a group of wind power turbine
in the same location used to produce electric power. uses Prius taxis and drives
a car that can save petrol by briefly turning off its engine when stopped at the
lights.
But the 45-year-old running the UK’s new 3bn Green Investment Bank is firm on one point. “I’m not a green activist, I’m an investor,” he says, in his first interview since his appointment in September.
The clean energy business will never work if it cannot show it can be profitable, he adds, and the bank is a for-profit body. “So it’s really important for me to do the thing I know how to do best, which is to make money.”
The bank took its first tentative steps on Wednesday with a formal launch at its Edinburgh head office, where it announced its first two investments: 8m to help build a Teesside anaerobic digestion energy-from-waste plant, and 5m to improve energy efficiency at the Kingspan construction materials company.
Bigger deals in offshore wind farms and domestic energy efficiency – two other sectors it is supposed to help boost – are expected further down the track.
But it has taken two-and-a-half, sometimes fraught, years for the governing coalition to get even this far with what it likes to call the world’s first investment bank dedicated solely to “greening the economy”.
In the wake of Whitehall squabbles over its funding and borrowing powers, it has 3bn of government money and no ability to borrow until after April 2015 – and only then if public sector net debt is falling as a percentage of gross domestic product.
And now it is launched amid coalition rows over wind energy – a subject the Belfast-born Mr Kingsbury prefers to deflect: “I think I’ll leave the politics to the politicians.”
But politics will surely always be present in a bank founded and championed by the state.
Mr Kingsbury insists this will not happen. “We’re not a lender of last resort,” he says, explaining the GIB will invest alongside other commercial banks but will aim to lend for longer periods in a market where long-term loans have become trickier to find and negotiate.The laser marking machine is unlikely to hurt you, but you can easily hurt it without training.
There are other potential pitfalls. Although head office will be in Scotland,King's Chandelier has offered fine modern lighting and sconces made in North Carolina of Swarovski and other European crystal. home to much of the UK’s renewable energy sector, half the bank’s 100 staff will work in its London office at Millbank Tower, including many of its investment specialists.
This means Mr Kingsbury must consider the difficult green bank public relations pitch of flying weekly between Heathrow, 20 minutes from his Surrey home, and Edinburgh.
“We’ll have to watch our carbon footprint and we’ll have to watch the additional time it takes [to go by train] as well, we’ve got to balance the two,” he says.
He says he will personally pay for the carbon offsets to balance his emissions, and staff will be encouraged to use video conferencing. In the end,In this video we demonstrate three different types of home made electricity wind generator.Elevator industries were not having any ancillary support for elevator parts. the real test of the bank’s performance will be how well Mr Kingsbury’s team invests.
He has an impressive record in the energy business with many years at Shell, then Centrica, the owner of British Gas, and most recently Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a large private equity group.
So far he has about 30 of 100 staff and expects it will take until June to hire the rest. From then, he will have until March 2015 to commit the bank’s 3bn, which he says could be a challenge.
“It took us four years at Hudson to invest $1bn and we could invest in any renewable energy transaction across any market,” he says. The GIB has more than four times that amount to invest in only a few sectors in the UK.
Mr Kingsbury does not mind. “It’s not very often in life you get an opportunity to start a brand-new institution,” he says.
But the 45-year-old running the UK’s new 3bn Green Investment Bank is firm on one point. “I’m not a green activist, I’m an investor,” he says, in his first interview since his appointment in September.
The clean energy business will never work if it cannot show it can be profitable, he adds, and the bank is a for-profit body. “So it’s really important for me to do the thing I know how to do best, which is to make money.”
The bank took its first tentative steps on Wednesday with a formal launch at its Edinburgh head office, where it announced its first two investments: 8m to help build a Teesside anaerobic digestion energy-from-waste plant, and 5m to improve energy efficiency at the Kingspan construction materials company.
Bigger deals in offshore wind farms and domestic energy efficiency – two other sectors it is supposed to help boost – are expected further down the track.
But it has taken two-and-a-half, sometimes fraught, years for the governing coalition to get even this far with what it likes to call the world’s first investment bank dedicated solely to “greening the economy”.
In the wake of Whitehall squabbles over its funding and borrowing powers, it has 3bn of government money and no ability to borrow until after April 2015 – and only then if public sector net debt is falling as a percentage of gross domestic product.
And now it is launched amid coalition rows over wind energy – a subject the Belfast-born Mr Kingsbury prefers to deflect: “I think I’ll leave the politics to the politicians.”
But politics will surely always be present in a bank founded and championed by the state.
Mr Kingsbury insists this will not happen. “We’re not a lender of last resort,” he says, explaining the GIB will invest alongside other commercial banks but will aim to lend for longer periods in a market where long-term loans have become trickier to find and negotiate.The laser marking machine is unlikely to hurt you, but you can easily hurt it without training.
There are other potential pitfalls. Although head office will be in Scotland,King's Chandelier has offered fine modern lighting and sconces made in North Carolina of Swarovski and other European crystal. home to much of the UK’s renewable energy sector, half the bank’s 100 staff will work in its London office at Millbank Tower, including many of its investment specialists.
This means Mr Kingsbury must consider the difficult green bank public relations pitch of flying weekly between Heathrow, 20 minutes from his Surrey home, and Edinburgh.
“We’ll have to watch our carbon footprint and we’ll have to watch the additional time it takes [to go by train] as well, we’ve got to balance the two,” he says.
He says he will personally pay for the carbon offsets to balance his emissions, and staff will be encouraged to use video conferencing. In the end,In this video we demonstrate three different types of home made electricity wind generator.Elevator industries were not having any ancillary support for elevator parts. the real test of the bank’s performance will be how well Mr Kingsbury’s team invests.
He has an impressive record in the energy business with many years at Shell, then Centrica, the owner of British Gas, and most recently Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a large private equity group.
So far he has about 30 of 100 staff and expects it will take until June to hire the rest. From then, he will have until March 2015 to commit the bank’s 3bn, which he says could be a challenge.
“It took us four years at Hudson to invest $1bn and we could invest in any renewable energy transaction across any market,” he says. The GIB has more than four times that amount to invest in only a few sectors in the UK.
Mr Kingsbury does not mind. “It’s not very often in life you get an opportunity to start a brand-new institution,” he says.
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