News

• Union Capital Group snaps up LatAm-focused renewables firm

  01 September 2011

  Investment management firm Union Capital Group (UCG) has acquired London-based renewable energy investment company Plane Tree Capital.

• NextEra raises $935m for concentrated solar project

  31 August 2011

  A NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary closed $935 million in financing for a 250MW solar project in California, with the help of the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) loan guarantee programme.

• Insurers could face $6bn bill from Hurricane Irene

  31 August 2011

  Hurricane Irene will be a costly natural disaster, with US insurance losses possibly as high as $6 billion, but will not be as dire an event for the insurance industry as originally expected, according to catastrophe modelling firms.

• Climate Change Capital loses Ventus funds to Temporis

  30 August 2011

  Climate Change Capital (CCC) has been replaced as manager of its two Ventus wind farm funds following a manager resignation, poor performance and a breach of internal controls.

• Water quality trading to bloom in Ohio

  30 August 2011

  A water quality trading programme, meant to reduce the release of excess nutrients into the Ohio River Basin, last week received a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant which will allow the first pilot trades to go ahead.

• UK corporate pension funds improve on RI... slowly

  30 August 2011

  There are early signs of "a step change" in how corporate pension funds in the UK approach responsible investment, but progress does not reflect broader corporate awareness of sustainable business issues, according to a survey from UKSIF.

• Governors call for another seven years of wind tax credits

  30 August 2011

  The US federal government should extend the production and investment tax credits for wind power for at least seven years, according to a bipartisan group of state governors.

• Generation eyeing credit markets

  30 August 2011

  Generation Investment Management, the sustainability-focused investment firm, is building a "credit markets investment platform", with the hire of a corporate debt specialist the latest addition to a growing team.

• Wind firms look skywards for new market

  30 August 2011

  Using kites and balloons to tap the strong, consistent winds more than two kilometres in the air could avoid many of the pitfalls of more down-to-earth wind farms, according to the first market report on the nascent industry by consultancy GL Garrad Hassan.

• KGAL aims timber fund at insurance companies, pension funds

  25 August 2011

  KGAL is hoping to raise €250 million ($360 million) into its second sustainable forestry fund, and its first aimed at institutional investors.