NextEnergy Solar adds first plants with onsite battery storage

NextEnergy Solar adds first plants with onsite battery storage – NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited has announced the acquisition of two operating solar plants in the UK. These come with integrated energy storage facilities. The purchase of Salcey Farm and Pierces Farm adds an additional 7.2MWp to NextEnergy Solar’s portfolio. The integrated energy storage capabilities at both sites have a combined capacity of c.1MW.

The cost to the fund was £9.3m.

These were the first plants that NextEnergy solar has acquired with integrated energy storage facilities.  The two plants, located in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, are accredited under the 1.4ROC and FiT regimes respectively.  Each site has a battery energy storage system (“BESS”) comprising a lithium-ion battery pack integrated with switchgear and transformers capable of providing frequency response and grid balancing services.

The transaction represents NESF’s first entry into integrating operating solar plants with BESS.  The company expects to continue growing its exposure in this area as the opportunity increases in scale and scope.  Its distributed portfolio of 55 sites spread across England constitutes a very attractive opportunity to deploy value-enhancing technologies such as BESS in the future.

NextEnergy Solar Fund says that it continues to pursue further transactions from its pipeline of acquisition opportunities and expects to announce additional investments in due course.

NESF : NextEnergy Solar adds first plants with onsite battery storage