Bluefield Solar Income Fund, a new investment fund, has announced a £150 million share offering aimed at investing in large-scale solar schemes.
The fund will be listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, with shares priced at £1 each.
A spokesman for the fund said it would immediately begin the process of identifying suitable agricultural, industrial and commercial sites within the UK for long-term investment.
James Armstrong, managing partner of Bluefield Partners, which has been appointed as investment adviser to the fund, said: “Large-scale solar energy is now poised to become a major investment theme in the UK.
“The game-changer for solar has been the significant reduction in the cost of installations, meaning large-scale solar energy in the UK can now play an important role in enabling the government to achieve its renewable energy targets in a cost effective and efficient way.”
Earlier this month it announced an exclusivity deal with British Gas to provide solar PV facilities across UK industrial and commercial sites owned by the energy provider. This followed similar deals with companies including Thames Water and Toyota.
A statement from the new fund said that it was aiming to pay a dividend of 7 to 9 pence a year per share to investors after the first year, during which a dividend of 4p per share is expected.
It also announced that the board of the fund would be chaired by John Rennocks, former executive director of Powergen and British Steel/Corus.
In addition, it said that the share offering will be primarily targeted at institutional investors.
Investment manager Vestra Wealth LLP has already signed a commitment letter to subscribe for a minimum of 15 million of the shares, a spokesman confirmed.
It is expected that the placing and offer for subscription will open in mid June and that the shares will begin trading in July 2013.
The fund said that it would aim to invest all the money raised within 12 months, targeting long life solar energy infrastructure, expected to generate energy over a 25 year asset life.
A statement said it would aim to derive a large portion of its returns through a combination of feed-in tariffs and the sale of renewable obligation certificates.
