Lightsource Renewable Energy has bought a completed PV project from ET Solar as a 50MW collaboration between the two companies gets underway.

Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) firm ET Solutions, a subsidiary of PV manufacturer ET Solar, has sold an 8.4MW plant 40 miles south west of Bristol to Lightsource.

The project was grid connected on 27 March and qualifies for the 1.6 Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) rate, which dropped to 1.4 at the end of the month.

“With the advantage of being a fully-integrated one-stop solution service, we are able to provide cost-competitive investment grade power plants for investors and funds in such mature markets like the UK,” said Dennis She, president and CEO, ET Solar.

The two companies have a memorandum of understanding in place that will see them work on 50MW of projects. ET Solar has set itself a target of 80MW in the UK during 2014.

Nick Boyle, CEO of Lightsource, said: “We made the decision to work with ET Solar because it has both bankable EPC service and products, and we firmly believe this project is the first of many projects our two companies will develop together in the very near future.”

The UK connected a record 1.1GW in the first quarter of 2014 and could eclipse Germany as Europe's largest solar market this year.