Renewable energy business, Anesco, is to partner with Gresham House, a specialist alternative asset manager, on a 200MW ground mounted solar PV portfolio in the UK.
The agreement will see Gresham House funding the portfolio of grid scale assets, which will comprise sites ranging in size from 20MW to 50MW generation capacity.
The shovel-ready sites form part of Anesco’s growing development pipeline. All engineering, procurement and construction will be handled by Anesco, with the company also providing long term operations and maintenance once the sites are energised. The development and construction partnership will span three years. With a value in excess £100m, it is Anesco’s largest transaction to date and will underpin significant growth in the coming years.
Each solar farm will benefit from an advanced biodiversity management plan, designed to support local flora and create habitats for the most at-risk species. Construction of the first site is expected to commence later this year, with the full 200MW portfolio anticipated to be completed within the three year period.
The agreement forms part of a long-standing relationship between the two companies. Last year, this saw Gresham House purchasing its first subsidy free site, a 12MW solar farm from Anesco for one of its renewable energy funds.
Mark Futyan, Anesco CEO, commented: “We’re delighted to be working with Gresham House on this project and to once again be demonstrating our full lifecycle engineering capabilities. At Anesco, we specialise in providing a complete turnkey solution for renewables investors, which spans from development and construction, to maintenance and optimisation. Having built a 1GW solar pipeline in the UK, we look forward to collaborating with partners such as Gresham House, to increase the country’s renewable energy supply.”
Wayne Cranstone, Gresham House Investment Director, said: “By building on our existing relationship with Anesco we are securing access to a quality pipeline of unsubsidised assets developed by one of the leading developers in the country. At Gresham House we take sustainable investment seriously. This portfolio provides new renewable energy generation to support the UK’s net zero carbon emissions targets and its biodiversity plans align with our wider ESG objectives. Anesco’s ability to develop, build and operate these assets in a sustainable way while delivering strong returns for our investors makes them an ideal partner for us”.
Established in Reading in 2010, Anesco has developed over 100 solar farms and energy storage assets, while its renewables operation and maintenance arm now has more than 1.1GW of renewable energy under management.