Yingli sells 18.8-MW UK solar park to NextEnergy Solar Fund

Chinese solar panel maker Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd (NYSE:YGE) said Thursday it has sold an 18.8-MW solar power plant in the UK to London-listed NextEnergy Solar Fund Ltd (LON:NESF).

Located on the former Boxted Airfield in Essex, the solar park was completed and connected to the grid in March 2015. It is expected to produce enough electricity to power almost 5,700 UK homes, the company calculates.

"The sale of this project is in line with Yingli's global strategy to move downstream by developing and selling power generation assets at an attractive return," Yingli chairman and chief executive Liansheng Miao said, adding that the deal provided additional capital to fund the company's growing global project development business, which included a qualified utility-scale project pipeline of almost 300 MW outside of China.

NextEnergy Solar Fund announced an agreement to acquire the Boxted project in December 2014. The fund invests in operating solar power plants in the UK and has so far acquired 18 projects with a combined capacity of 234.5 MW.

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