- NextEnergy Capital (NEC) has announced that NextPower UK ESG has signed one of the UK’s largest solar-sleeved power purchase agreements.
- NPUK ESG is a private UK solar fund that focuses on acquiring utility-scale solar and battery storage (BESS) assets at the ready-to-build stage, constructing them through energisation, and building a large operating portfolio of solar and BESS assets.
NextEnergy Capital (NEC) has announced that NextPower UK ESG (NPUK ESG) has signed one of the UK’s largest solar-sleeved power purchase agreements (sleeved PPA) to date.
The sleeved PPA is a 20-year inflation-linked contracted revenue agreement that covers 90 per cent of the electricity and any associated Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin certificates (REGOs) generated by the Llanwern solar farm. It is currently the UK’s largest operating solar farm, with an installed capacity of 75 MW.
Llanwern solar farm in Newport, Wales, was one of NPUK ESG’s first seed assets. With an installed capacity of 75 MW, the equivalent of powering an estimated 20,606 homes per year, it remains the largest solar farm constructed and energised in the UK to date, covering 260 acres.
The sleeved PPA is a four-way physical contract that involves NPUK ESG selling power to Anglian Water Services (AWS) with the involvement of both EDF in the UK and SSE. The agreement works through EDF, taking power generated by Llanwern, which is then balanced, firmed, and converted, changing the intermittent generation into baseload blocks of power.
Then, it is sleeved to AWS via their energy supplier, SSE. This innovative structure allows the renewable generated solar profile to reliably match the energy profile required by AWS, helping them towards their decarbonisation targets.
NPUK ESG is a private UK solar fund that focuses on acquiring utility-scale solar and battery storage (BESS) assets at the ready-to-build stage, constructing them through energisation to build a large operating portfolio of solar and BESS assets.
Once the assets are operational, NPUK monetises the power generated through a contracted strategy, enabling a high degree of predictability and visibility on the Fund’s cash yield.
During the holding period, the investment team will take a hands-on approach to risk mitigation and value creation, optimising the assets over the fund’s life before looking to exit the portfolio. Since its launch in August 2022, NPUK has already been able to make two distribution payments to its investor base, which have been more than the target, alongside reporting impressive Net Asset Value growth.
Michael Bonte-Friedheim, NextEnergy Group CEO and Founder, stated, “This 20-year sleeved PPA fits perfectly into NextPower UK ESG’s contracted revenue strategy and demonstrates the future growth opportunity that solar serves in providing long-term power generation to both utilities and corporates as they increasingly look towards renewable energy sources as part of their decarbonisation journey.”