Greencoat UK Wind PLC (LON:UKW) has further expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of the unbuilt Douglas West wind farm near Lanark in Scotland.
Construction is scheduled to start next year with a planned capacity of 45Mw when finished. Douglas West will be subsidy free and cost £45mln to construct, which will be paid out of UK Wind’s cash flow. Blue Energy, the vendor, and Natural Power will oversee the construction work.
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The acquisition will be the second recently of a wind-farm without government subsidies known as renewable obligation certificates (ROCs).
In October, UK Wind acquired Tom nan Clach a 13 turbine wind farm in Nairnshire, Scotland, which was also subsidy-free and where prices were fixed using a CFD mechanism.
Once up and running Douglas West will increase Greencoat UK Wind’s generating capacity to 910Mw.
Stephen Lilley from the wind fund's manager Greencoat Capital added: "During 2018 we have continued to build our portfolio with investments and commitments totalling over £500mln, of which approximately 70% are in ROC accredited wind farms.
“Although we are starting to see attractive CFD and subsidy-free investment opportunities, we expect the majority of future investments will continue to be made from the £50bn pool of UK wind farms accredited under the ROC regime."