Schroders Greencoat has snapped up a 29MW solar farm in southern England on behalf of its clients.
The 28.5MW Stokeford array, located near Wareham, Dorset, was acquired from Innova and its joint venture partner Will Bond, the landowner of Stokeford Farm.
The deal was made by a UK flagship private markets fund managed by Schroders Greencoat.
Stokeford, developed by the Innova-led JV, is also part of a shared grid connection with the 8MW Alaska wind farm, one of a few shared solar-wind grid connections at utility scale in England.
In July 2022 the site was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) (AR4) by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The site energised on 31 July 2024.
The design, module procurement, EPC, and the ICP construction contracts – in addition to the unique technical and commercial complexities involved with a shared grid connection – were managed by Innova’s in-house delivery, engineering, development, and corporate finance teams.
Innova senior investment manager Hassan Bashir said: “We are delighted to announce the divestment of our fourth project from our DNO pipeline to a Schroders Greencoat managed fund.
“The acquisition of the operational Stokeford Solar Farm marks a significant ramp-up in scale of new-build projects that Innova together with Schroders Greencoat are delivering, which contributes significantly towards our shared goal to deliver the UK’s Net Zero target.
“On behalf of Innova, I would like to thank our project partners and legal advisers at TLT LLP for their support through the sales process.”
Schroders Greencoat investment director Matt Tingle said: “This acquisition is the latest in our partnership with Innova, which has now seen four projects transacted, as we work together towards our ambition of meeting the UK’s demand for clean affordable energy, and the Government’s target of 70GW of solar capacity by 2035.”
This is the fourth deal between Schroders Greencoat and Innova (all of which are from Innova’s development pipeline).
The news follows previous acquisitions by ISG Renewables, a JV between the two firms, of Carn Nicholas (10MW), Bicker Fen (22.6MW) and Newbold Pacey (27.8MW).