Innova Energy acquired by Elm Trading, gaining 61.5MW portfolio of ground-mount solar

Solar energy company Innova Energy has been acquired by Elm Trading, taking on its 16 ground-mount assets in Britain.

The diversified trading company has gained 61.5MW through the transaction dubbed Project Radiant, all of which is accredited under the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) or Feed in Tariff (FiT) schemes, while some solar farms also benefit from power purchase agreements (PPAs).

It follows Innova selling its portfolio of 57 commercial rooftop solar PV assets in the UK to Octopus Renewables in August 2021, which had a total capacity of 3.7MW.

The acquisition by Elm Trading concludes Innova Energy’s – a subsidiary of Innova Capital – long-term strategy of acquiring, optimising and selling solar assets.

“The strategy has delivered an outstanding total return to the shareholders of Innova Energy for UK subsidised solar assets,” said Robin Dummett, director at Innova Energy.

“This was achieved through careful selection of assets offering value upside from optimisation and portfolio aggregation, as well as active asset management. The exit was managed through a competitive sale process, and we were delighted to work with Elm Trading who not only delivered a structured and well managed acquisition process but kept to their original offer working tirelessly and constructively to complete the transaction.”

To date, the Innova Group has owned and operated more than 100MW of solar sites, and has 50 DNO and grid connected solar, hydrogen and energy storage sites in development in the UK, with a total capacity of 4GW.

In 2020, Innova Energy refinanced its 57MW portfolio of UK rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV, raising £30 million from NatWest to expand its operations.

Additionally, the company signed a joint venture with ReneSola Power in November of 2020 to develop a pipeline of utility scale solar in the UK, aiming to continue the development of an existing 50MW pipeline as well as extending it by at least a further 50MW over the next couple of years.

Elm Trading meanwhile holds a portfolio of £250 million in assets in the UK, in sectors including property, renewable energy and commercial forestry. In 2019, it acquired the 3.3MW Milborne Port solar project from Canadian Solar.

Throughout the acquisition process, Innova was advised by EY, TLT and PKF Francis Clark. Vendor due diligence was carried out by TLT, Foot Anstey, RINA and Corylus Planning and Environmental.