Solarcentury buoyed by international growth as UK revenues tumble

Solarcentury’s UK revenues more than halved in 2017 amidst a backdrop of subsidy uncertainty, a loss which was somewhat mitigated by the firm’s international growth.

Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March 2017 were filed with Companies House earlier this month, revealing that total group revenues for the year slid 31% to £116.4 million.

That slide was predominantly driven by a collapse in UK revenues, which more than halved to £61.1 million. Solarcentury squared this almost entirely against the retraction of the Renewables Obligation scheme which curtailed the significant majority of ground-mount solar development in the country.

But the collapse in UK revenues was somewhat mitigated by international sales which more than doubled over the course of the year to £55.4 million.

The main driver of growth for Solarcentury has been in Latin America. LatAm revenues soared from just north of £6 million in 2016 to more than £27 million last year, surpassing the £25 million in revenues the firm recorded in Europe.

The results mark a change in strategy for Solarcentury enacted since subsidies in the UK were either significantly cut or withdrawn wholesale.

In November Solarcentury announced that it had clinched a major partnership with financiers Capital Stage. Frans van den Heuvel, chief executive at Solarcentury, said at the time that the deal confirmed the firm’s status as a “major international developer and independent power producer”.

The results disclosure states that Solarcentury has a 1.1GW pipeline of solar to develop out to 2020.

But while the international growth will serve as good news for the company it was not enough to prevent Solarcentury sliding to a £2.9 million net loss for the year, having recorded a £2.4 million profit in 2016.

Frans van den Heuvel, chief executive at Solarcentury, said the fall in UK revenues was “disappointing but expected”.

“We anticipated this and invested in our international teams; at the same time we shifted our focus onto a global development pipeline which now exceeds 3GW. These moves have allowed us to mitigate against the declining UK market and position us for stronger growth and profitability in the future,” he said.