A private investor has acquired a 50% stake in global renewable energy company Ethical Power Group, formerly held by Hive Energy.
The investment by Greg Skinner, who co-founded UK-based hedge fund Quadrature Capital in 2010 and is a trustee of the Quadrature Climate Foundation, established in 2019.
Hive Energy, which pushed Cleve Hill, the first UK solar project to be classed as a nationally significant infrastructure project, through planning, initially invested in Ethical Power in 2020.
Ethical Power has more than quadrupled in size since then, with moves including the acquisition of the development business of Public Power Solutions (PPS), including a pipeline of solar and energy storage projects with a potential capacity of over 250MW.
This follows PPS, Hive and Ethical Power entering a co-development agreement in 2022.
Ethical Power’s founder and CEO, Thomas Kneen, maintains a 50% share of the business. He commented that after the “very successful” partnership with Hive Energy, the group felt a new partner was needed to “reach the next stage of growth”.
Hive and Ethical Power will continue their partnership through their joint venture development projects in the UK, including the Hive Ethical Project Development in which Hive remains a minority shareholder.
Commenting on his investment, Skinner said: “I am excited about Ethical Power’s mission and the work that they are doing to decarbonise the grid. Our values and ambitions are closely aligned – I deeply care about mitigating the impact of the climate emergency and supporting sustainable growth. Given their strong leadership and impressive pace of expansion in recent years they are well set up for further growth, and I am excited to be a part of the journey with Tom and the team.”
Ethical Power’s UK movements include signing an agreement in July this year to provide Balance of Plant (BoP) work and install battery energy storage system (BESS) equipment at Varco Energy’s 47.5MW Sambar Power project.
Hive and Ethical Power will also continue work on their international ventures. As reported on our sister site, PV Tech, in 2021, they and Solar South West established a joint venture, HES Aotearoa, dedicated to developing a pipeline of nearly 350MW of utility-scale PV plants in New Zealand.
Internationally, Hive remains a major solar player primarily across Europe. A core element of its strategy is developing projects for sale, which Hive has done successfully throughout 2023. This included a deal to sell four solar projects with a combined capacity of 267MW to German solar developer Juwia.
