NextPower UK ESG Makes Substantial Progress in First Full Year of Operations
London, December 15th, 2023
NextEnergy Capital is pleased to have delivered exceptional progress for NextPower UK ESG (“NPUK”) over the last 12 months. NPUK is NEC’s fourth fund focused on private, new-build solar PV assets in the UK.
- Closes year with 10th Acquisition
- c500MW total capacity including energy storage
- 10% net dividend distributed to investors
- £600m in commitments secured from institutional investors, exceeding the £500m target
The Fund has just closed its 10th acquisition. Hatherden, a 60MW project located in Hampshire was acquired at the end of November. The Fund has had rapid deployment of capital that started seven weeks following the fund’s first close in August 2022. The Fund acquired two operational seed assets, Llanwern, (South Wales, 75MW), and Strensham (Worcestershire, 40MW). Since then, NPUK has acquired a further eight UK utility-scale solar assets, some with co-located electricity storage, giving NPUK a diversified portfolio of ten assets with a total capacity of c500MW. As a leading investor in solar PV globally, NEC enjoys a strong origination network of new-build projects from both industry relationships as well as NextEnergy Group’s proprietary development platform.
Michael Bonte-Friedheim, CEO of NextEnergy Group, commented:
“NextPower UK ESG is the first-ever fund focused exclusively on new-build, unlevered solar projects in the UK. We identified the market opportunity early on and secured a proprietary pipeline of projects to demonstrate the strategy’s attraction for investors. We are very grateful for the investor support secured for the fund’s launch in summer 2022 and capital raises thereafter. Since then, we have demonstrated our track record in delivering exceptional results for investors, as well as significantly increasing the installed base of ground-mounted, large-scale solar PV in the UK. We are close to welcoming new investors into the fund, increasing its capital and ability to secure further attractive investment opportunities.”