Investment trust Downing Renewables and Infrastructure Trust has acquired a 13MWp UK solar portfolio and rooftop solar assets for £12.6 million.
The solar assets, which consists of an operational ground-mounted solar portfolio spread across two sites and approximately 1,600 commercial and residential installations, benefit from high levels of feed-in tariffs and renewable obligation certificate subsidies, the firm said.
Via this acquisition, the portfolio will increase the number of Downing’s, which operates under the ticker DORE, managed solar assets to c.4,800 with a total annual average production of 101GWh.
Crucially, Downing is expected to remain unaffected by the UK’s Electricity Generator Levy (EGL) following the acquisition, with the firm stating it had “significant headroom in the EGL’s annual allowance.”
“The expansion of our UK solar portfolio with a further 1,600 installations highlights a continued commitment to portfolio diversification. This portfolio was particularly attractive due to its high levels of fixed, inflation-linked revenues,” said Tom Williams, partner, head of energy & infrastructure at Downing.
“After a strong year of performance and electricity generation in 2022 from our UK solar portfolio, we feel confident this acquisition can help continue to provide our investors with sustained, strong and stable returns.”
Downing completed its first UK investment with the acquisition of a portfolio of solar PV assets on 19 March 2021.
This portfolio consists of 13 ground-mounted sites located across mainland Great Britain totalling c.73MWp, 28 commercial rooftop assets totalling c.10MWp and seven residential rooftop portfolios in Northern Ireland totalling c.13MWp.
DORE’s portfolio stretches across multiple energy generation sources. It is actively progressing with what it said is several hundreds of millions of pounds of pipeline opportunities. These opportunities span the UK and Nordic hydropower, wind, solar and batteries, Nordic utilities and essential infrastructure.