The Renewables Infrastructure Group acquires Solwaybank wind farm

The Renewables Infrastructure Group has acquired an onshore wind farm in the UK, ‘Solwaybank’, located in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, it announced on Monday.

It said Solwaybank was currently in the early stages of construction, and was expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2020.

The FTSE 250 firm said that once complete, Solwaybank would comprise 15 Senvion MM100 wind turbines, each with a rated capacity of 2.0MW, amounting to 30MW.

Solwaybank would be “one of few” onshore wind farms in the UK to benefit from what TRIG called the “attractive” Contract for Difference tariff (CfD), which would fix power price during the first 15 years of operations.

It said Solwaybank had an allocated strike price of £82.50 per MWh in 2012 prices, equivalent to £91.14 in current prices.

The project was acquired from TRIG's operations manager, RES, pursuant to TRIG's right of first offer agreement.

TRIG said total consideration for the project was expected to be around £82m, including construction costs.

Of that , £39m was invested at acquisition, partly funded through a drawdown of the group's revolving acquisition facility which now stood at £134m drawn.

The project did not have any third-party project level debt.

Following the acquisition, TRIG's construction exposure was 12% of its portfolio value, measured on a fully invested basis.

By year-end, the board said that exposure was expected to reduce to around 7%.

“Solwaybank is an important addition for the TRIG portfolio, being its first CfD wind farm in the UK,” said Richard Crawford, director of infrastructure at TRIG’s investment manager InfraRed Capital Partners.

“Together with the two French wind farms acquired last week, Solwaybank enhances the company's revenue visibility as part of a balanced portfolio.

“The wind farm is being constructed by RES who have an impressive track record in developing and building renewable energy assets.”

TRIG said its investment manager was evaluating a “strong pipeline” of investment opportunities for the company, in wind and solar assets in the UK, Ireland, France and Scandinavia.