About
Yoo Energy continue the push towards our joint sustainable energy future. Developing non corelated renewable power and efficient energy infrastructure, allows us to offer market leading returns whilst protecting the world around us.
Yoo Energy takes projects through early stage development; securing the main risk obstacles in land, environmental certification, planning, grid connectivity, supply resource and export income. Either building out projects or selling ready to build.
Yoo Energy work directly with landowners and key stakeholders to develop projects. Yoo energy has significant expertise and experience in solar, wind, energy from waste and battery development. Covering the UK and Western Europe. Currently focusing on continued portfolio development of solar in Spain and Italy, along with UK energy storage.
If you have a project(s) you need support to realise, a site that could be developed, a need for sustainable power or would simply like to know more about the opportunities in our growing market, please do get in touch.
Sectors
Wind
Electricity from wind
The UK is one of the best locations in the world for wind development, with wind turbines contributing to 18% of the country’s electricity generation. On a levelized cost of energy (including the cost of carbon) on shore wind in the UK has the lowest cost of on energy compared to any other technology (including coal, nuclear, gas and solar).
Having developed 17 operational wind turbines sites, from green field and taking on sites pre-construction. Yoo Energy aggregated and successfully sold on the portfolio to a well-known financial institution.
Whilst currently developing extensions to previous sites in Scotland, Yoo Energy are looking for further opportunities for projects with good wind resource and nearby available grid resource. Both through simple acquisition and in funding joint venture developments.
Solar
Electricity from the sun
Yoo Energy are focusing on the solar market across Europe. In Spain we are developing sites from 20–50MW working locally to ensure best practice and thoughtful value creation.
Whilst not as sunny as other parts of the world and with subsidies no longer supporting the United Kingdom’s solar market, there remain effective opportunities for solar development. The two strands Yoo Energy are focused on are MW scale direct wire solar and 20MW+ standalone projects. Where direct wire projects have long term PPA with a credit worthy counter party who are committed to the given location for 20+ years.
Energy from Waste
Heat and electricity from waste
The UK creates 100million tonnes of waste per year, of which 31 million tonnes is household waste. We produce and use more than twenty times the plastic today then just fifty years ago. Whilst creating a huge problem this also creates an opportunity for recycling and energy recovery.
Once recyclable elements are sorted out of rubbish there remains a large fraction of energy dense plastics, waste wood and other hydrocarbon materials. In sending to landfill these can take centuries to break down whilst leaving risk of spilled pollution and the creation of methane (30 times more potent in global warming than CO2). Energy from waste facilities typically save up to 200kg of CO2 per tonne of waste treated.
Yoo Energy are working on projects in the UK and Ireland using advance thermal technologies (ACT). In the conversion of waste car tyres into transport fuel and the conversion of municipal solid waste to heat and electricity via gasification and separately via pyrolysis.
Energy Storage
Electrical grid demand response
As we move further into renewable energy deployment, the ability to balance the national grid against intermittent generation becomes increasingly challenging. The power generated by wind and solar on a windy and sunny summers day, compared to a still and dark winters evening, result in a variation in supply that doesn’t correlate to demand. Energy storage technologies such as batteries, allow the grid to respond to this variable generation in order to balance with the power demand.
Yoo Energy are developing utility scale demand response battery projects supporting the increasing deployment of intermittent, renewable electricity generation. This also helps to offset diesel peaking plants which are frequently used due low deployment cost, but come with high environmental and running costs
Team
As part of the wider Yoo group, Yoo Energy enjoys a broad technical development experience with a strong project finance background.
Jonathan Hall
Partner
Jonathan hails from a surveying pedigree. Having worked with our chairman John Hitchcox for over 25 years, Jonathan was responsible for a large number of development site acquisitions; both during their Manhattan Loft Corporation days (bringing incredible domestic living spaces to market), along with a number of larger projects by Yoo. He has also been instrumental in forming some of the longer-term investment strategies here at Yoo.
His experience in investment lead him naturally towards renewable energy projects. Post Credit Crunch, Wind and Solar markets in the UK, with non-correlated index linked returns, made perfect sense. With early mover advantage, having developed an aggregated portfolio of wind turbine projects, he then led the successful sale of the portfolio to a well-known intuitional investor.
Jonathan saw the near-term opportunity for the Energy from Waste sector in the UK and added this to the solar, wind and energy storage projects being created by Yoo Energy. Working with developers and end holders of assets, he continues to grow existing projects and develop new opportunities in the space.
Anthony Agnew
Development Director
Anthony’s mix of sustainable engineering, project development and finance have him ideally placed to help grow the Yoo Energy portfolio. Having successfully developed his own 23 Acre Solar farm in Cornwall in 2014, he went onto to work under JV with Yoo Energy on both wind farms and solar projects. As an entrepreneur, Anthony has run his own businesses over the last 14 years, in both the UK and Asia.
Including starting and running for six years, a sustainable heating and power business, installing for domestic and commercial clients. He is also active in project and finance broking globally in the sustainable energy sector. Having introduced Yoo to an Energy from Waste project, he was invited to join the team to further develop opportunities in the UK, Ireland and further afield.
Yoo Energy continues to develop and look for opportunities in energy from waste (UK and Ireland), solar (Western Europe), wind (UK & Ireland) and energy storage (UK). Supporting the global paradigm shift towards our sustainable energy future.
© Yoo Capital 2020