Bluefield Solar, the income fund focused on acquiring and managing UK-based renewable energy and storage assets, acquired a 93.2 MW operational solar and wind portfolio from a UK-based fund manager for £112.4 million (~$138.4 million).
The portfolio comprises 15 solar PV projects with a total installed capacity of 64.9 MW and four wind projects with a total installed capacity of 28.3 MW. The portfolio is located across England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
Five of the solar projects are accredited under the feed-in-tariff regime. Ten projects are accredited under the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) regime with tariffs of 1.2-1.6 ROCs. All wind projects are accredited under the ROC regime, with tariffs of 0.9-1.0 ROCs.
During 2021-2035, the proportion of fixed and regulated revenues from this portfolio is projected to be approximately 57%.
The acquisition has been initially financed using the company’s new and enlarged £100 million (~$123.1 million) revolving credit facility, provided equally by RBSi and Santander UK, which as well as being extended to May 2024 (with an option to extend to May 2025), also contains a new accordion tranche of up to a further £100 million (~$123.1 million).
The margin on the facility has also been lowered from 2.0% to 1.9%.
According to Mercom Research, in January 2022, Bluefield Solar acquired a 30.1 MW of operational solar portfolio from Good Energy Group. The portfolio comprises six ground-mounted solar projects located in Southwest England.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2022 solar funding and M&A report, 23 GW of large-scale solar projects were acquired in Q1 2022 compared to 13.1 GW in Q4 2021. Project developers and independent power producers were the most active acquirers in Q1 2022, with over 17 GW of projects being acquired, followed by investment firms and funds, which acquired 3.6 GW.
