Greencoat UK Wind‘s dividend yield has topped 10%, drawing fresh attention to UKW, the FTSE 250 renewable energy investment trust, at a moment when the underlying numbers are showing their strongest momentum in several years.
The headline figure is eye-catching, but the more consequential shift is in dividend coverage. The H1 2026 results presentation shows cover of 1.9 times for the first half, a material improvement on the 1.4 times reported for H1 2025 by the company’s own interim report.
A note on that H1 2025 figure: the original snippet cited 1.3 times for H1 2025. The H1 2025 interim results and the company’s own H1 2025 interim report record 1.4 times for that period; the 1.3 times figure appears to reflect full-year 2025 cover as shown in the 2025 Annual Report’s dividend history. This article uses 1.4 times for H1 2025.
Greencoat UK Wind Dividend: Coverage Improves Sharply
Net cash generation in H1 2026 reached £222 million, up 36% on H1 2025, according to the H1 2026 Half Year Report. The trust’s net asset value stood at £2,895 million, or 134.1 pence per share, at 30 June 2026.
The driver was wind. The trust generated 3,003 GWh in H1 2026, against 2,581 GWh in H1 2025, and came in 4.9% above its own generation budget for the period. That matters because below-budget generation was cited as a headwind in both 2024 and 2025.
The 2025 full year told a harder story. The 2025 Annual Report shows NAV per share fell from 151.2 pence at 31 December 2024 to 133.5 pence at 31 December 2025. Power price assumption changes alone reduced NAV by 10.9 pence per share over the year. Dividends declared with respect to 2025 were 10.35 pence per share.
Balance Sheet Actions Have Strengthened the Foundation
Management has been active on the liability side. The 2024 Annual Report discloses that early in 2025 the trust completed an oversubscribed refinancing, replacing £325 million of near-maturing term debt with £425 million of new term debt on 5-to-7-year tenors, and reduced its revolving credit facility to £400 million.
In H1 2026, it went further: a further £200 million of debt was refinanced with expiries extending into 2032-34, and £53.5 million of debt was repaid outright.
On the equity side, the trust bought back £109 million of shares across 2025 at an average discount of 23%, which supported NAV per share, according to a Hargreaves Lansdown research update from March 2026.
The trust has now increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years, with a brief pause in 2024, and has paid out £1.4 billion in dividends since its IPO. Its 2025 annual results presentation set a target of 10.70 pence per share for 2026, a 3.4% increase in line with December 2025 CPI.
Risks Remain Firmly on the Table
The share price has declined 22% over the past five years. Estimates place the current discount to NAV at between 23% and 29%, though the NAV per share at 30 June 2026 had recovered to 134.1 pence from the 133.5 pence recorded at year-end 2025.
The H1 2025 Interim Report records the trust’s total shareholder return since listing at 11.5%, or 7.4% annualised, which it describes as the highest in its peer group. That long-run context matters when assessing the recent price weakness.
Power price risk is structural. The 2025 Annual Report shows how quickly a change in power price assumptions can move NAV, and wind generation remains inherently variable. Debt costs matter too, though the refinancing activity has pushed near-term maturities out materially.
The Greencoat UK Wind dividend looks better supported today than at any point in the past two years, with 1.9 times cover and a generation run-rate that has exceeded budget. Whether that holds into H2 2026 depends heavily on wind conditions and where power prices settle. The trust’s next trading update will test both assumptions.
