The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has announced that has expanded its portfolio after acquiring two solar farms in the South West with a combined generating capacity of 30.4MW.
The two sites are an 11.8MW project located near Barnstaple in Devon, and an 18.7MW project located near Colchester in Essex. The company claims that the acquisitions have been made for an aggregate consideration of between £34.5 million and £37 million.
TRIG noted that solar PV is playing an increasingly important role for the company, with PV now representing eight out of 22 investments made by TRIG. Commenting on the news, Richard Crawford from InfraRed Capital Partners, TRIG's investment manager, said: “These two large solar projects nearly double the generating capacity of TRIG's solar PV portfolio in the UK and France to approximately 62MW, providing further balance and diversification to the TRIG portfolio.”
Both of the solar projects were acquired from a group of private developers. The 11.8MW project has already been connected to the grid and the company is hopeful that the Essex site can be connected in time to claim 1.6ROCs too; however, a price reduction has been agreed in case the site is connected from 1 April and has to claim 1.4ROCs.
TRIG states that it is currently working on negotiating suitable power purchase agreements for the solar farms.