The government's Green Investment Bank must now engage with existing environmentally ethical investors to truly understand the limitations facing the industry, experts have said.
Today saw Shaun Kingsbury appointed as the chief executive of the government's Green Investment Bank; Kingsbury was formerly repsonsible for the European activities of private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners.
He also set up and leads the Low Carbon Finance Group in London, a body of leading capital providers to the renewable energy sector.
Kingsbury will be joined by six non-executive directors with a range of backgrounds including universities, business, investment funds, equity finance and the low carbon sector.
The Neds are:
Investment professional best known for co-founding the UK's first equity investment fund for sustainable development in 1988, now called the Jupiter Ecology Fund
- Professor Dame Julia King
Vice-Chancellor of Aston University, Ned for the department for business innovation and skills, and the UK’s Low Carbon Business Ambassador since November 2010- Fred Maroudas
Current finance director of Heathrow Airport and chair for the UK Green Investments (UKGI) Investment Committee- Tom Murley
Leads the renewable energy team at private equity house HgCapital and is responsible for HgCapital Renewable Power Partners' funds- David Nish
Chief executive of insurer Standard Life and member of the UK Strategy Committee of lobbying group TheCityUK- Isobel Sharp
Advises Deloitte on corporate reporting, governance and public policy matters, having retired as senior technical partner in May 2012- Tessa Tennant
Business secretary Vince Cable expressed his happiness that the government had been able to appoint people of such high calibre to the board of the UK Green Investment Bank.
"I have every confidence the team will build on the good progress already made, leading the bank into full operation and developing a truly ground breaking institution,” he added.
Cable's optimism was largely shared by industry experts today; Michael Ware, partner at BDO Corporate Finance with a specialism in renewables and green energy called the board appointments a positive step.
“One of the biggest challenges they will face is selecting the wheat from the chaff of bankable projects," he said.
"There are an awful lot of projects looking for funding particularly around the £10m – £20m mark and these vary considerably in terms of how developed they are and the level of risk.
"I worry that GIB could be seen as the bank of last resort for opportunities that everybody else has passed on. Hopefully the experience of the non execs in the renewables space will be invaluable in this regard.”
Ware's worries were echoed by James Vaccaro, head of marketing and corporate development at ethical bank Triados.
"Clearly this is a high calibre board, which shows the government is taking this seriously," he told Huff Post UK.
"But it has a number of very different priorities in very different sectors which are all in different stages of development. Some sectors need more focus on the infrastructure development, others have plenty of money but are having problems distributing it effectively.
"What risk position it takes on certain sectors will be critical," Vaccaro continued. "We hope to engage with it with on and offshore wind and other renewables - it needs to develop relationships with others already in this space to understand where the limitations are."
Vaccarro added the bank should be less concerned with the volume of investments and more focussed on ensuring the money is invested effectively to secure the future growth of the sector.
As with the Infrastructure Bank currently being developed by the government, it is hoped the Green Investment Bank can gap-fill where investment projects are currently falling short - typically those which are more risky for initial investors.
The board is scheduled to sit in October, with plans to make the bank operational by the end of 2012.