NextEnergy Solar to buy additional 17.8 MW of PV capacity in UK

NextEnergy Solar Fund Ltd (LON:NESF) said on Thursday it has sealed deals to buy the special purpose vehicles that own two solar power plants in England with a combined capacity of 17.8 MWp.

More specifically, NESF has agreed to acquire the owner of the 9.3-MWp Bowerhouse solar park in Somerset for GBP 11.1 million (USD 17.6m/EUR 15.5m) along with the firm that holds the 8.5M-Wp Wellingborough solar farm in Northamptonshire for GBP 10.9 million.

The Bowerhouse plant, which was hooked to the grid on March 27, 2015, is to be accredited under the 1.4 Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) regime. Its acquisition will be completed once it achieves the preliminary acceptance certificate (PAC), supposedly this month.

The Wellingborough facility, in turn, receives 1.6 ROCs per MWh as it was connected to the grid on March 30, 2014.

“The company is considering a number of additional acquisition opportunities which we will finance using our current debt facility. Given the extent of the portfolio under consideration, we expect to expand our debt facilities in short order to enable us to continue to close acquisitions rapidly on attractive assets as they mature,” said Kevin Lyon, NESF’s chairman. He added the company intends to undertake additional equity raises this year.

NESF has now secured 18 assets totalling 234.5 MWp, it noted.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.589/EUR 1.396)

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