Shanghai-headquartered solar developer SPI has increased its foothold in the UK by acquiring development rights for 50MW worth of PV projects.

The firm has entered into non-binding heads of terms with Global Renewable Construction to complete the development of projects located in Wales and the Midlands between Q3 2015 and Q1 2016.

All of the individual projects have generating capacities less than 5MW and SPI said it expects them to qualify for accreditation under the UK’s feed-in tariff or 1.3 Renewable Obligation Certificate subsidies.

Xiaofeng Peng, chairman at SPI, said the acquisition marked a “significant step forward” for building the firm’s presence in the UK.

“As our second recently announced agreement with a major UK developer, we are confident that our efforts to grow and diversify SPI's global PV portfolio in the UK and Europe will continue to gain momentum,” Peng added.