NextEnergy Solar Fund Ltd (LSE:NESF) said it has reached 100 solar power assets across its portfolio and is continuing to pursue a £350mln pipeline of further investments.
The hundredth operating solar asset is located on the roof of a Holiday Inn hotel in Nottinghamshire, with an installed generation capacity of 181kW and a 25-year power purchase agreement for its entire generated energy.
It is the fifth and final investment under the investment trust’s 2021 rooftop solar deal with renewables developer Zestec, which has added 0.9MW of combined capacity long-term inflation-linked power purchase agreements with the building tenants, for a total cost of under £800,000.
The other four assets are located in Cheshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and East Sussex, two of which are benefiting from government-subsidised feed-in tariffs.
Ross Grier, UK managing director of NextEnergy Group, the trust’s investment manager, said reaching 100 solar assets was a “major milestone”, and the fact that this latest solar asset is based on the rooftop of an international hotel chain “shows how far the solar sector has matured and developed, with it now accepted and embraced as a major energy asset class”.
“As the cheapest and quickest to construct form of renewable energy, solar is vital to the transition to net zero and NESF is proud of the part it is playing in this transition."
The trust said its pipeline of other investments includes UK standalone energy storage, international solar assets such as its recent Portugal acquisition, and co-located battery storage via the recently announced retrofit program.
In April, the company said its 70%-owned energy storage joint venture with Eelpower has identified the first five potential locations where co-located battery storage systems could be retrofitted next, with the first beginning construction this year and the rest being progressed into the development stage.