Risk disclosure
Last updated: 10 September 2026
Please read this page in full before registering your interest or speaking to us. It is not a formality and it is not boilerplate. It describes what can go wrong with investments of the type we introduce, and the ways in which you are not protected.
If anything here is unclear, do not proceed until you have taken independent professional advice.
Do not invest unless you are prepared to lose all the money you invest.
These are high-risk investments. You could lose all the money you invest and are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
What kind of investment this is
The opportunities we introduce are investments in private, unlisted companies that develop and operate energy infrastructure in the United Kingdom.
They are typically structured so that a single company owns a single site, and investors participate through instruments issued by that company. The money raised funds construction and commissioning of the asset.
These are not savings accounts, deposits, bonds you can sell, or funds. They are direct investments in a private development project. They sit at the highest-risk end of the investment spectrum, and the protections that apply to mainstream retail investments do not apply to them.
That is why they are restricted by law to high net worth and sophisticated investors.
You could lose all the money you invest
If the project fails, is not completed, does not generate the revenue expected, or the issuing company becomes insolvent, you may receive nothing back. Not a reduced return — nothing.
You should only consider an investment of this kind with money you can afford to lose entirely without it affecting your standard of living, your obligations, or your plans. It should form a small part of a diversified portfolio, never a large one, and never money you may need.
If losing the full amount would cause you material difficulty, this asset class is not appropriate for you.
You will not be able to get your money out
There is no secondary market for these investments. There is no exchange on which to sell them, and no buyer waiting.
You should assume that:
- You cannot sell, transfer, or redeem your investment before the end of its term
- You cannot exit early if your circumstances change
- Even at the end of the term, repayment depends entirely on the issuing company being able to pay
Some structures include transfer provisions. In practice these are rarely useful, because finding a buyer for an interest in a single private development project is difficult and, in a downside scenario, effectively impossible.
Assume your money is locked away for the full term, and possibly permanently.
You are not protected
- No Financial Services Compensation Scheme cover. The FSCS does not protect these investments. If the issuing company fails, there is no compensation scheme to make you whole. This is different from money in a bank account, which is protected up to the FSCS limit.
- No Financial Ombudsman Service. You are unlikely to be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service about the investment or its outcome.
- No FCA authorisation of the issuer. The companies issuing these investments are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in respect of them. The FCA does not review, approve, or vouch for the investment.
- We are not authorised either. UK Energy Investment is not authorised or regulated by the FCA. We do not advise you, and you do not have the protections that come with receiving regulated advice.
- No cooling-off guarantee. Depending on how a particular opportunity is structured and promoted, you may or may not have a right to change your mind after committing. Do not assume you will.
Project and construction risks
These are development projects. Until an asset is built, connected, and running, a great deal can go wrong.
- Construction delay. Projects run late. A delay pushes back the point at which the asset earns anything, and can breach the terms on which it was financed.
- Cost overrun. Projects cost more than budgeted. Additional funding may be required, on terms that may rank ahead of your position.
- Contractor failure. If the main contractor becomes insolvent mid-build, the project may stall, and replacing them is expensive and slow.
- Equipment and supply chain. Generation and storage equipment has long lead times. Delivery slips, and specifications change.
- Grid connection. The asset is worthless without a connection to the electricity network. Connection agreements can be delayed or varied, and UK connection queues are long and subject to ongoing reform. A connection date is a plan, not a certainty.
- Planning and consents. Consents can carry conditions, be challenged, or lapse.
- Failure to reach commercial operation. In the worst case, the asset is never completed and never earns anything.
Revenue and market risks
Even a completed, operational asset may not perform as forecast.
- Wholesale power prices are volatile. A large part of the revenue for flexible generation depends on the difference between the cost of running and the price of power at the moment it runs. Those margins move substantially and unpredictably.
- Forecasts are forecasts. Any revenue model you are shown rests on assumptions about future power prices, running hours, and market behaviour. Different assumptions produce very different answers. Ask what the assumptions are and what happens if they are wrong.
- Capacity Market income is not guaranteed revenue. Capacity Market agreements are won at auction and pay for availability. They carry delivery obligations. If those obligations are not met, penalties apply and agreements can be terminated. An agreement is a contract with conditions, not a fixed income stream. Treat any description of it as “guaranteed” with considerable caution.
- Regulatory and policy change. The electricity market is actively being reformed. Changes to market design, subsidy regimes, connection rules, environmental regulation, or carbon pricing can materially affect the economics of an asset.
- Competition. As more flexible capacity is built, the returns available to each asset may compress.
- Operational risk. Equipment breaks. Availability targets are missed. Maintenance costs more than planned.
- Technology risk. Where an asset is described as “hydrogen-ready”, that is a specification of the equipment, not a commitment that hydrogen will be available. Conversion depends on fuel infrastructure that does not currently exist at scale, and on economics that are not yet established. Do not assign value to a conversion that may never happen.
Structural risks
- Concentration. One company, one site, one project. There is no diversification inside the structure. Everything depends on that single asset performing.
- Security may not protect you. Many of these structures include security, often described as a charge held by a trustee. Understand what that means before relying on it: a charge over shares in a company is worth what the company is worth, and if the project has failed, that may be very little. A charge over assets ranks behind anything that ranks ahead of it, including secured lenders, and behind certain preferential claims in an insolvency. Enforcing security takes time and money, both of which come out of any recovery. A part-built power station is a difficult asset to sell, and it may realise a small fraction of the money spent on it. Security reduces risk. It does not remove it, and it is not a guarantee of repayment.
- Subordination and dilution. If further funding is raised, it may rank ahead of your position, reducing what you would recover.
- No control. You will have no say in how the project is run, no board representation, and no ability to intervene if you disagree with decisions being taken.
- Related parties. These structures often involve companies under common ownership or control. Fees, contracts, and payments may flow between related entities. Ask who is paid what, by whom, and when.
- Information. Once invested, you may receive limited reporting, and you may find it hard to establish how the project is actually progressing.
Returns are not guaranteed
Any figure you are shown by a sponsor is a target, not a promise, regardless of the language used to describe it.
Where returns are paid at the end of a term rather than during it, you receive nothing in the interim and your full exposure runs for the entire period. If the project is delayed, that period extends.
The rate offered on an investment is information in itself. A high rate reflects the risk the market attaches to the project. If a project could borrow more cheaply elsewhere, it generally would. It is a reasonable question to put to any sponsor: why is this capital being raised at this cost, rather than from a bank?
Be sceptical of the words “guaranteed”, “secured”, “fixed”, “asset-backed”, or “capital protected” applied to an investment of this kind. None of them means what it appears to mean here.
Currency
Where an investment can be made in a currency other than sterling, exchange rate movements between the date you invest and the date of any repayment may reduce your return, and may reduce the capital you receive back, independently of how the project performs.
Tax
Tax treatment depends entirely on your individual circumstances and may change.
Tax is not withheld at source on investments of this type. You are responsible for declaring and paying any tax due on any return you receive.
We do not provide tax advice, and nothing on this website should be read as tax advice. Take advice from a qualified tax adviser before you invest.
Our role, and our conflict of interest
UK Energy Investment is an introducer. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
- We do not advise you. We do not assess whether an investment is suitable for you, we do not make recommendations, and nothing we say to you is a personal recommendation. We are not permitted to advise you and you should not treat anything we say as advice.
- We are not the issuer. We do not issue, arrange, manage, or operate any investment. We do not hold, handle, or receive investor money at any point.
- We do not verify the sponsor’s information. Everything you are told about a specific opportunity comes from the sponsor. We do not audit it, verify it, or guarantee its accuracy or completeness, and we accept no responsibility for it. Satisfying yourself as to its accuracy is your responsibility and your adviser’s.
- We are paid by the sponsor. We receive a fee from the sponsor if an introduction results in a completed investment. We are not paid by you. This means we have a financial interest in introductions completing, which is a conflict of interest you should factor into how you read anything we tell you. It is also precisely why we do not advise you, and why we recommend independent advice in every case.
Before you invest
We would say all of this to you on a call, so it is here in writing too.
- Take independent advice from a regulated financial adviser, and take legal and tax advice on the documentation. Pay for it. It is a small cost against the sum at stake.
- Read the documentation in full, including the parts that are tedious. The risk factors and the definitions matter more than the headline.
- Check the companies at Companies House. Look at the accounts, the directors, the charges register, and the filing history of the issuer and its parent.
- Check the FCA Register at register.fca.org.uk to confirm the regulatory status of anyone you are dealing with, and check the FCA Warning List.
- Ask about track record specifically. Has this sponsor previously repaid investors in instruments of this kind, in full and on time? Ask for evidence, not assertion.
- Understand the downside first. Before asking what you make if it works, establish what you get back if it does not.
- Never rush. Nobody should be pressing you to decide quickly. If anyone does, that is a reason to stop, not to hurry.
- Do not invest money you need, money you have borrowed, or money drawn from your pension without specific regulated advice on doing so.
Protecting yourself
Investment fraud in the energy and “green” investment space is common, and legitimate opportunities and fraudulent ones can look similar from the outside.
The FCA’s ScamSmart service explains the warning signs and lets you check a firm or an offer: fca.org.uk/scamsmart
MoneyHelper provides free and impartial guidance: moneyhelper.org.uk
You can check any firm’s regulatory status on the FCA Register: register.fca.org.uk
We would rather you checked us and everyone else, and were satisfied, than took anything on trust.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with anything about the way we have dealt with you, contact us at info@ukenergyinvestment.com and we will respond in accordance with our complaints procedure.
Because we are not FCA authorised, you are unlikely to be able to refer a complaint about these investments to the Financial Ombudsman Service. A complaint about a specific investment should be directed to the sponsor in the first instance, in accordance with their own procedures.
This page describes risks generally. It is not a complete list, and it does not describe the risks of any particular investment. The specific risks of any opportunity will be set out in that sponsor’s own documentation, which you should read in full.