Foresight Solar Fund has announced that it is now managing an operational portfolio of 100MW of UK solar assets.
The fund has reached the milestone after connecting a 16MW site in Pitworthy, Devon on 10 April 2014. Foresight acquired the solar farm for £19.2 million, a lower price than initially accounted for due to the farm missing out on the higher ROC rate pre-April 2014.
The 16MW Pitworthy solar farm is the fourth and final asset of a total of 55MW of operating capacity acquired from SunEdison.
Currently, the solar fund has invested 88% of the funds raised from its initial public offering (IPO) in operational UK solar farms.
Foresight Solar Fund recently revealed that it would also be acquiring RWE’s first UK solar farm project – a 37MW development in Oxfordshire.
The solar fund’s operational portfolio now consists of the 2ROC accredited 32MW Wymeswold plant and 52MW of assets accredited at the 1.6ROC level.
Despite the recent degression in available ROC rate, the UK looks set to install an unprecedented amount of ground-mount solar despite the recently-published Solar Strategy’s call for a shift towards the roof-mounted sector. Industry analysts NPD Solarbuzz recently noted that funding remains strong under 1,4ROCs with a “healthy pipeline of large-scale projects to be completed from Q2 to Q4 2014”.