Plans to encourage new investors to put money into offshore wind farms have been unveiled by the Green Investment Bank.

Unveiling its end-of-year results, the Government-led bank said it is looking for long-term investors for a fund managed by a subsidiary that will buy equity in wind farms that are already in operation. These investors are likely to be pension and sovereign wealth funds.

The Green Investment Bank was launched by the Business Department in 2011 to invest in wind, solar, bio-mass and other ‘green’ schemes that would otherwise lack funding
because they are considered too risky or take too long to repay private investment. In the year to the end of March, the bank gave £668 million to 18 projects.

Shaun Kingsbury, the bank’s chief executive, said: “We want to do more to maximise our ‘green’ impact. We plan to extend our reach into new markets like community-
scale renewables.”