Willis Sustainable Fuels UK (WSF), a subsidiary of Willis Lease Finance Corporation (WLFC), and the Green Finance Institute (GFI), an independent adviser to governments and investors, have launched a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project accelerator. The initiative is designed to progress WSF’s pioneering SAF project at Wilton International in Teesside to ‘Final Investment Decision’ and to create a repeatable model for financing new domestically produced transition projects.
Since the start of 2025, the UK’s SAF mandate has required increasing levels of SAF in the national jet fuel supply, reaching 10 per cent in 2030 and 22 per cent in 2040. Under this mandate, the economic, energy-security and innovation benefits of expanding domestic SAF production are compelling. While the policy provides long-term demand certainty to accelerate SAF growth, the challenge remains in achieving bankability.
WSF’s Teesside project is one of the UK’s most advanced second-generation SAF developments, using existing, proven technology to produce SAF from waste. Targeting 14,000 tonnes of production per year, the project is expected to support national energy security by reducing reliance on imported fuels and to create new green-industry jobs in the Northeast, converting mainly UK biomethane into next-generation jet fuel. It has been awarded £7.6 million through two rounds of the UK Government’s Advanced Fuels Fund.
Before committing capital in this emerging sector, financiers must address risks relating to technology performance, feedstock, and price or revenue certainty. Although the UK mandate offers strong long-term demand certainty, developers still need to bring together a complex mix of public and private de-risking tools to meet financing requirements.
With a track record of mobilising £77 billion in committed capital to drive the transition and as a key adviser in shaping the UK’s SAF mandate, GFI’s SAF programme will focus on helping leading projects reach Final Investment Decision in 2026. The accelerator platform is designed to remove financing barriers and develop solutions that attract private-sector investment into pioneering projects.
The initiative will prioritise developing innovative financing and de-risking strategies for SAF infrastructure, identifying regulatory and financial gaps that need to be addressed to enable advanced projects to reach Final Investment Decision and deliver volumes aligned with the UK mandate, and convening public- and private-sector market participants to create solutions that tackle bankability challenges. It will also work to establish a replicable model for turning policy ambition into built, investable clean-energy infrastructure as further UK projects aim to reach Final Investment Decision in the coming year.
Dr Amy Ruddock, Director of Willis Sustainable Fuels, said the partnership with GFI represented a vital step in demonstrating the commercial viability of SAF projects in the UK, adding that together they aim to create a blueprint for financing solutions that will accelerate the transition to low-carbon aviation.
