Greencoat UK Wind: Powering the Green Economy

Green investment funds play an important role in driving the transition to the green economy, enabling the scaleup of low-carbon infrastructure while making sustainable investment more mainstream. Funds make up 25% of the 2025 Green Economy Mark cohort.

Greencoat UK Wind was the first renewable infrastructure fund to list on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market. “By creating the listed vehicle of Greencoat UK Wind we have helped to create a scalable secondary market for renewable energy assets in the UK,” says the fund’s co-lead manager Matt Ridley.

At the time of Greencoat UK Wind’s IPO in 2013, the market for wind asset ownership was led by utility companies who acted as developers, builders and owners. However, Ridley explains that it believed that the renewables market needed new sources of capital in order to expand.

Greencoat UK Wind’s £2.8bn market [Note 1] capitalisation has grown approximately 10 times since its IPO and it has been a member of the FTSE250 since 2016. Since its IPO it has raised more than £2.5bn from investors, underlining the scale of the renewable energy opportunity. It’s an example of how a listed green investment trust can be a catalyst for meeting both climate change and energy security objectives.

Greencoat UK Wind has remained constant in its investment proposition, says Ridley. “The fund pays an annual dividend that is progressive in line with inflation while always reinvesting back into the business. Over 12 years, that approach has remained unchanged. We have now paid £1.2bn in dividends and reinvested almost £1bn back into new wind farms. Every time I say those numbers, they are staggering to me.”

The fund has become increasingly appealing to retail investors, he says, as it “provides inflation-linked income, the liquidity of a listed investment fund, and investors can see their money doing good beyond the financial returns.”

By creating the listed vehicle of Greencoat UK Wind we have helped to create a scalable secondary market for renewable energy assets in the UK.

The contribution of Greencoat UK Wind to the UK energy supply is evident. Last year, its 49 wind farms generated 2% of the UK’s electricity demand and the portfolio avoided an estimated 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 through its displacement of thermal energy generation. s of H1 2025, the capacity of operating UK wind farms is 31GW (worth over £100bn) and Greencoat UK Wind’s market share is approximately 6%.

Greencoat UK Wind has proudly held the Green Economy Mark since its inception in 2019 and “it’s an important banner to wear,” says Ridley.

The fund’s impact extends far beyond renewable energy production: over the past year its community funds have awarded £5.7m in grants to charities and community benefit organisations across 864 projects - from research into turbine blade recycling to peatland restoration and eagle conservation.

Learn more about the Green Economy Mark

The Green Economy Mark is an important banner to wear.

With the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan [Note 2], the industry now has a delivery plan which will accelerate ambitions to operate a clean electricity grid by 2030. It marks a significant increase in aspiration for the wind sector and for renewable generation in general. One of the stated goals is a twofold increase in onshore wind capacity and a fourfold increase in offshore wind capacity by 2030. Ridley argues that, thanks to its pioneering approach, offshore wind is a very strong industry for the UK. Onshore wind will also continue to grow but at a slower pace. “Offshore is where the scale is,” says Ridley.

To realise these targets will require up to an additional £175bn of investment, Ridley estimates. “Wind is still going to do the heavy lifting for grid decarbonisation and the market opportunity therefore remains vast.”